


A Hacker's Tale

by FoxyNinjaBear



Category: Hermitcraft
Genre: Angst, Betrayal, Family, Friendship, Gen, Hermitcraft - Freeform, Villains
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-26
Updated: 2020-02-23
Packaged: 2020-10-28 09:57:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 56,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20776673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FoxyNinjaBear/pseuds/FoxyNinjaBear
Summary: Glorious in life, eternal in death.That's what the Shadowbyte Army had told its soldiers for years. That their loyalty and skill granted an unforgettable legacy after they died. That following their orders would bring them prosperity while appeasing their superiors.And everyone believed it. Why would their saviors lie to them? After they saved their lives in the first place?It's what a group of eight of those soldiers believed. When they were brought together to take over a single World, occupied by a small group of people known as HermitCraft. When they broke past its firewalls and set foot on its soil.But when their plans go horribly wrong and they're taken hostage by their perceived enemies, something begins to stir inside of them, one by one. They start to question their faith and loyalty to the Shadowbyte Army, to it's powerful leader and founder, Ecryptos. Everything they had ever known is put in a brand new light. And they soon realize that they are part of a much more sinister plot...But will they agree to break their oath to stop it once and for all?





	1. Chapter 1

**???**

Seventeen minutes. That was how long she had been waiting at their planned meeting spot. Same time, same place, every single week.

Of course he was late.

The creeper lifted herself away from the wall she was leaning against. “C’mon, where are ya…” She muttered, before glancing around at the dozens upon dozens of people walking by in the hall. Her coal black eyes shifted from person to person, and she searched for a head of fiery red hair, to no avail. She groaned in annoyance, gritting her teeth. “Ugh…”

“Did you miss me that much?”

The green scaled woman heard the familiar voice behind her, and her shoulders stiffened. “Synth… you’re late. _Again_.” She stated, not turning around.

The male voice chuckled. “Hey, you know me, Coda. I like pushing your buttons.”

Coda rolled her eyes, turned around, and saw that apparently nobody was there in the first place. Her lips pressed into a firm line, and her brows furrowed. “...okay, dude, c’mon.” She said, clearly feeling bothered. “Just show yourself so we can get this over with.” She then pulled out a small stack of plastic, multicolored cards from a back pocket on her jumpsuit. “I lost the bet and I owe ya.”

Before her eyes, a taller man with fair skin and long red hair tied back into a ponytail appeared out of thin air in a flash of pixels. Like her, he wore a black and gray uniform with red accents, a pair of black boots to match. His piercing grey eyes locked with hers, a sly grin on his lips. 

"About time I get my deck back." He chuckled, taking the cards out of her hands. "Good thing you suck at poker."

Coda laughed and shoved Synth at the comment. "That's cuz ya cheat, you fucker," She laughed.

The ginger winked. "Hey, I don't cheat… I just find loopholes."

"Yeah… _sure_," The creeper replied sarcastically, chuckling. “You elegantly… expertly… carefully dupe everyone into giving you their shit.”

Synth let out a laugh. “Now that’s ridiculous.” He insisted. He was about to continue his sentence, only to be interrupted by a small _ping_. “Hmm?” He lifted his arm to look at his wrist, where what resembled a watch resided. On its small screen, an icon of a bell was ringing back and forth, signalling that a brand new message was there for him to read.

Coda raised a brow at the beep. “What’s that about? Is it that crazy ex of yours again? I told ya that if ya needed me to shut’er up, I would.”

A confused frown formed on the redhead’s face as he read the message. “Apparently we’ve got a mission… World hijack. Block A, Floor Seven, at eight thirty.”

Coda eyes went wider in disbelief. “A mission? Today? But it's our day off…”

Synth frowned even more. “There’s no one else available…” He stated, before turning off his communicator and sighed.

The creeper’s brows furrowed. “You gotta be kidding me...” Her shoulders then sagged, and she let out an irritated groan. “Dammit... I gotta cancel my date now…”

Synth’s eyes widened slightly in interest. “A date? With who?”

“A hot tub.”

The redhead smirked. "That sounds more like a party."

Coda rolled her eyes. "You're _so_ not invited."

“Awww!” Synth chuckled, before clearing his throat. “But hey, think about it. This could be your opportunity to finally get promoted. Show that you have what it takes to be a Sergeant.”

Coda thought for a moment, pursing her lips. “...you have a fair point...” She replied. After a few seconds of silence, she then pushed herself off the wall and stood up with confidence. “Y’know what, fuck it, I’ll show ‘em!” Determined, she began to march off down the hallway. 

The redhead chuckled and looked on at the creeper as she strolled away. "What're ya waiting for, a red carpet?" Coda asked, turning around to face her friend. "C'mon, we're gonna be late!"

“Don’t worry, I’m coming,” Synth answered, shifting away from his spot on the wall and beginning to follow the creeper. “And we still have half an hour. It’s only eight o’ clock, after all.”

“The Hive has over a hundred floors, dude!” Coda stated, gesturing around her with her arms to emphasize her point. “And the floors are enormous!”

Fort Oblivion, or the Hive, as it was commonly called, was the Shadowbyte Army’s base of operations. It had been ever since the military faction was founded hundreds of years prior by Ecryptos, a hacker said to have unspeakable power. With over one hundred floors, countless amounts of soldiers flowed in and out of the fortress like bees, loyally serving their queen, or in this case, king.

“That’s what hacks are for.” Synth replied, before pointing over to a mechanical sliding door. “And elevators.”

The green creeper glanced over at the elevator. “...you’re lucky I like you.” She said as the mechanical doors slid open. “You’re such a smartass sometimes…”

The human just smirked as he and his friend got into the empty lift. “You’re one to talk,” He teased, pressing a button on the elevator's control panel. 

“Oh, shut the fuck up,” Coda shoved Synth and laughed, crossing her arms as the elevator closed and began to descend.

A few moments of silence passed after the descent started. It was then that another soft _ding_ came from Synth’s communicator. He lifted his wrist to check it, and he let out a small groan of annoyance as he did.

Coda tilted her head to look up at her taller friend. “_Now_ is it Vinnie?”

“Yeah…” He replied, a frown on his face.

“She’s still pissed at ya, huh?”

The redhead nodded. “Mhmm…” His lips were pressed into a firm line, obviously fed up with the situation.

Coda gritted her teeth at the thought of Synth’s ex girlfriend. “Bitch…” She muttered. “Why can’t she just leave ya be? You came outta the closet almost a damn month ago.”

“Correction: _you_ dragged me out of the closet.” Synth pointed out as the elevator stopped and opened its doors.

The two friends stepped out of the elevator and into another bustling hallway of Shadowbyte soldiers and personnel. “That’s cuz ya needed a polite shove in the right direction.” She stated back as they walked side by side. “You couldn’t hide your secret forever, y’know. Eventually ya would’ve broke.”

“She would have been angry either way,” Synth said.

“Who fucking cares if she’s mad?!” Coda snapped, eyes angry and full of protective rage. “She’s just some self-centered lil’ bitch who can’t handle the fact that the hottest guy she ever dated turned out to be ace!”

Synth blinked at the outburst, but then he chuckled. “You think I’m hot?” He asked.

“No shit! Look at yourself dude!” Coda gestured to him dramatically. “You’re hot as hell!”

“I thought you said that to everyone…” The redhead tightened his ponytail as he let out another laugh.

“That’s cuz I don’t give a fuck who I hook up with,” The green creeper stated. “Y’know I’m fine with every gender of the fucking rainbow.”

A grin tugged at the corners of Synth’s lips. “So… if you could, would you hook up with me?”

Coda immediately stopped in her tracks. “What? Ew, fuck no!” She answered. “Dude, I’ve known you for years! Even before you came out, the thought of hooking up with ya was just…” She shivered in disgust. “Uggghh…”

Her reaction make Synth smile wider and burst out laughing. “Pffft!” He had to lean himself against the wall and clutch his stomach, he was cackleing so hard. 

“Dude, I’m serious!” Coda stated.

It took a moment for him to catch his breath, and once he did, he cleared his throat. “Hey, like I said before; I love pushing your buttons...!” A sly smile formed on the redhead’s pale face.

"Yeah, yeah,” Coda said, before she noticed a set of large metal doors. Above it read a single sign in bold lettering. Block Seven A. “Wait, we’re here?”

Synth stepped up to the door. “See? I told you we wouldn’t be late.” He said, and pushed open the door to walk in. 

The room was rather large, giving plenty of space for soldiers to work. A raised platform was at the end of the expansive space, giving access to a large monitor, currently blank and dark. On one side of the room, long racks of all sorts of weapons and armor ran along the walls, displaying everything from assault rifles to gas masks to swords. Massive sparring mats were conveniently spaced out evenly along the perimeter of the racks, allowing easy access to the large amount of hardware. On the other side of the room, a row of pixelated targets and training dummies lined the wall, waiting to be used.

Synth brushed off a bit of dust from his shoulder. “You think the Hive is so large now?”

Coda rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, shut up.” She said, surveying her surroundings. For a moment, she thought that she and Synth were the only people present. But then her gaze landed on a figure near the sparring mats. A short, pudgy girl with long brown hair sat cross legged on the floor, surrounded by countless papers with what appeared to be blueprints. She had a pencil grasped between her milky fingers, and was writing down on one of the sheets.

A that moment, the curvy girl glanced away from her papers and caught sight of Coda and Synth. Her thin brown eyes lit up, and she grinned, standing up to happily greet the new arrivals. "Ooo, you must be the Infantry soldiers!" She said as she pranced over to them, gesturing to their red-accented Shadowbyte uniforms. "My name's Sakura."

Coda looked the girl up and down. She appeared… almost too cheerful and peppy at that moment. Especially since missions were never exactly a happy time. "You… don't look like you're a soldier, not gonna lie." She said.

Instead of being offended, the brunette shrugged and laughed. "I know. I'm not exactly a soldier anyway." She then tapped a small cloth badge in the shape of a cog sewn onto her uniform. "I'm more of a hired nerd than anything."

Synth raised an eyebrow and nodded. "Ah, you're in the Engineering department. You operate mechs?"

Sakura nodded. "Mhmm!" She answered. "I operate mechs, make cybernetics, design machines, the whole nine yards." She counted off each thing she said by holding out a finger for each one. It was at that moment that one thing was very apparent to Coda and Synth; the short woman had a prosthetic left arm, intricate lines of redstone wiring spread throughout the whole limb.

Synth kept his gaze on her arm for a moment, before lifting his head up to look her straight on. "So do you know any of the other two people here?"

The brunette gave him another nod. "Oh yeah!" She pointed to a corner of the room, where two guys sat. One had bright blue hair and eyes, and the other had blonde hair and a pair of welding goggles. "The blonde one is Lucky, he's part of the Cyber division. He's going to be our go-to for information. The one next to him is Jazz, part of Special Ops."

Coda nodded. "So we're still waiting on three more people…" She said to herself.

"Yes, three," Sakura replied. "As far as I know, I'm the only mechanic, and we should be getting at least one medic. Not sure about the rest though-" She then fell silent, and leaned to the side to look past the two Infantry soldiers. Her signature wide smile reappeared on her face. "Oh, nevermind!"

The two friends glanced over their shoulders, and sure enough, there were two new arrivals in the block. A man with greyish-white hair and faded blue eyes had entered, closely tailed by a taller but younger male with dark brown eyes and black hair. Both had the typical Shadowbyte jumpsuit on, as everyone else did, but instead of them being mostly made of black fabric, they were a clean white tone accented with shades of red and grey. It was very apparent that those two were part of the Medical division of the Army. And Coda immediately recognized one of them.

The creeper flashed a smile towards the two medics. "Hey, old man!" She called, waving to the white-haired medic and getting his attention. "Still kickin' huh?"

The older man chuckled and waved back as he approached, the younger medic in tow. "It's gonna take a lot more than a zombie hoard to kill me, Coda." He called and held up his arm, which was wrapped in some bandages.

Synth glanced at his friend, then the man, and then back to his friend. “Wait… this is Grey, right?” He asked her. “You said that he was your mentor when you first enlisted.”

Coda nodded. “Yeah, he was. I was still in the Medical Division back then. Eventually I got transferred to Infantry.”

“That’s because she has zero patience,” Grey said. At this point, him and the other medic had reached Coda, Synth, and Sakura. “Staff Sergeant Grey, at your service,” He held out a hand for the trio of soldiers to shake.

Sakura was the first one to shake his hand. “Sakura. Sergeant for the Engineering division.” She said, giving him a warm smile.

Synth was next as soon as the brunette let go. “Master Sergeant Synth. Infantry.” He introduced himself. “I’ve heard a lot about you from Coda.”

“Good things, I hope?”

The redhead shrugged and chuckled. “Eh, healthy mix of both good and bad.”

Coda elbowed her friend at the answer. “Hey, I don’t say _that_ much bad stuff ‘bout him!” She stated, crossing her arms and pouting. “He was just-”

“Not letting you have any fun?” Grey finished, a half smile on his wrinkled face.

The creeper fell silent, and let out a frustrated huff. “Fuck you, Grey.”

“Missed you too, Coda.”

Sakura then spoke up. “Excuse me, sir…?” She asked. “Who is that with you…” She gestured to the other medic next to Grey.

“Oh, yeah, him,” Grey gestured to the quiet boy next to him. “This is Nix,” He said. “He… doesn’t say much, but he’s one of the finest kids I’ve ever mentored.”

The two Infantry soldiers glanced over at the medic. A small smile formed on his lips, and he gave a small wave, but no words came from him as a greeting. 

Coda nodded, tilting her head slightly. "Aight then…Word of advice though." She took a step closer to Nix, grinning slyly. "Don't forget to pay attention. If ya don't, you'll be coming back here in a body bag." She then walked away chuckling, leaving the teen's eyes wide and skin draining of its warm umber tone. His scrawny figure shrunk back in fear. He opened his mouth to say something, but only a single squeak sounded out.

Grey shook his head, pressing his palm against his forehead. "Some things never change..." He muttered to himself. “Ignore her, Nix. She’s always been like that.” He assured his pupil, making the color slightly return to the student's bronzed skin.

After leaving Nix absolutely terrified and walking some distance away from the group, Coda leaned up against the wall, arms crossed. Next to her, also up against the wall, was the guy with bright blue hair and eyes that Sakura had pointed out before, heavily focused on a small device in his hands.

“So you’re Jazz right? Special Ops?” She asked, glancing over at the soldier.

The blue-eyed man nodded, his gaze fixed on the gadget in his hands. “Mhmm.” He said. “You?”

“Coda. Infantry.” She answered. A small _ding_ then sounded from her communicator, and she glanced at her wrist. The time was eight thirty; exactly when the meeting was supposed to start. And there were still only seven people of the byte present.

Coda frowned, feeling annoyance bubble in her chest. “There’s only seven here… we’re missing the damn leader.” She growled. “If anything, they should at least be on time.” 

“Don’t worry,” Jazz spoke up, not removing his focus from his game. “She’ll be here soon.” 

The creeper raised a brow at the Special Ops soldier. “She? Who’s comin-”

The blue eyed gamer cut her off, holding up a finger. “Ah, hold on! I’m almost at the next level!” 

“Jazz-”

“Shhh!” More beeps and boops and blasts from the gaming device.

Coda’s patience was wearing thin. “Oh, for fuck’s sake!” But before she could rip the gadget out of Jazz’s hands, she felt two hands wrap around her arms and pull her away. 

“Okay, come on.” Synth said, calmly dragging his angered friend across the tiled floor, away from the current object of her rage. 

The creeper glared up at the redhead. “Synth, c’mon man!” She squirmed violently to try and get out of his grasp. “Get off me!”

The soldier shook his head. “Not until you calm down, _man_,” He stated back. “Your temper gets you into trouble. You know that, right?”

Coda huffed, and gave up trying to escape her friend’s grip. “Yeah… I know.” She answered reluctantly. “...you can let me go now.”

Synth chuckled, and removed his hands from her arm. “There you are, m’lady.” He joked, brushing his hand off on his red and black uniform.

The green-scaled woman rolled her black eyes, turning away from him and crossing her arms. “Yeah, yeah.” She said, obviously salty. She glanced over at Jazz, who was too wrapped up in his game to have a single care. “Is Jazz _ever_ gonna put that brick down?” She asked after a moment of quiet.

The redhead snickered and shrugged, shifting his focus to the blue eyed soldier leaning against the wall. “I don’t think he will, no,” He laughed. “That thing might just be the death of him one day.”

Coda burst out laughing, but tried to hold it back. “Pffft!” Her attempt to try and stop her chuckle only worked for a moment, and she then let it sound from her mouth. “Probably, yeah.” She said while laughing. The funniest part to the two of them was that Jazz was so absorbed into his game that he didn’t even hear the two talking about him.

A few moments later, their giggles died down into silence between them. “...have you heard of the name Nightingale?” Synth suddenly asked his friend.

Immediately, Coda recognized the name. According to word spread around the Hive, Nightingale was one of, if not the best Special Ops soldier in the whole Shadowbyte Army. She was especially known for her reputation as an incredibly skilled sniper, which explained her high ranking of Sergeant Major. But outside of missions she was put on, she was rarely ever seen. In fact, most of her existence was shrouded in mystery.

The creeper shrugged, but nodded. "Yeah, sorta." She answered. "All I know is that she's like a ghost around here. Why you ask?"

"I'm quite certain that she's the one we're missing."

Coda blinked. "...wait, what? You sure?"

Synth nodded. "Mhmm."

"...you wanna bet on it?"

The redhead raised a brow, but he grinned. "What did you have in mind?"

The green creeper smirked back. "Whoever's right has to buy the other person lunch when we get back." She then held out her hand and spat on it, before holding it out for him to shake. "Deal?"

Synth laughed. "Deal." He then spat in his own palm, before firmly grasping his friend's hand and shaking it. "And you know you're gross, right?" He let go and pulled a silk handkerchief out of his pocket to wipe his hand off. 

Coda raised an eyebrow, her smirk turning mischievous. “What, y’mean like this?” Before Synth could respond, she then disappeared in an array of static, only to instantly reappear latched onto him as if he were giving her a piggyback ride. She snickered and dragged her tongue across his freckled cheek, immediately letting out a cackle as her friend shrieked in disgust.

“Coda! Get off!” He scrambled to get her off his back, but the creeper only laughed more and latched on tighter. After drawing the attention of almost everybody else in the room, Synth eventually teleported a few feet away, causing Coda to fall to the floor with a loud thunk.

Coda groaned and leapt to her feet. “Oh c’mon!" She lunged to where Synth was, only to grasp at open air as he activated an invisibility hack and disappeared. She heard him let out a relieved chuckle behind her. "You mother-"

“I presume everyone’s here?”

Everyone in the room turned to face where the new voice came from. A tall woman with ebony skin and black curls stood in the doorway, donning a standard black and grey Shadowbyte jumpsuit with purple accents, signifying her position as a Special Ops soldier. A long, jagged scar stretched across one of her dark eyes, most of it hidden from sight with the leather eyepatch she wore. But with or without her nasty battle wound, her respectable title, or her surprising height, her gaze alone was cold and intimidating enough to make anyone stop in their tracks.

Synth, who had now reappeared, let out a chuckle and nudged his friend with his elbow. "I guess I won the bet." He said.

Coda tore her widened gaze from the woman as she strode into the room. “Wait… _that’s_ Nightingale?!” The creeper whispered harshly to Synth.

“Mhmm. That’s her.” He replied. “What, are you surprised? Jazz and I told you she was a woman...”

“Ya didn’t tell me she was smokin’ hot, though!”

Synth covered his lips with a single finger. "Hush now, Coda. You wouldn't want her hearing that, would you?" He teased. "Besides, she's coming this way." He nodded his head in the sniper's direction, and indeed, she had her dark eyes set on Synth and Coda.

The redhead gave the woman a nod in respect as she approached. “Ma’am,” He greeted, holding out his hand for her to shake. “Good to see you again.”

Nightingale returned the gesture and shook his hand. “You too, Synth," She said. "And please, Angel will do just fine.” 

The taller male chuckled, still holding the woman's palm. "But how would I be a gentleman then, ma'am?" He asked playfully, before lifting her hand up to press a kiss against her knuckles.

Angel rolled her eyes, letting out a small laugh in return. "Charmer as always, Synth," She pulled her hand away and rested it on her hip. "And I'm guessing the one next to you is Coda?"

As the creeper felt her heart skip a beat, her taller friend nodded, resting a hand on her shoulder. "Yes ma'am. This is her, in the flesh."

The ebony woman turned herself to face Coda, and she gave her a nod. "Synth says that you're pretty skilled at hand to hand combat. One of the best in your rank. Specialist, if my memory serves me correct?"

Coda, as flustered as she felt, put on a sharp-toothed smile and nodded. "Yes ma'am. That's me." She answered.

The corners of Angel's lips pulled up into a slight grin. "Well, let's hope you live up to your reputation." She turned to Synth and smiled wider, although not much. "That goes for you too, Synth."

The redhead chuckled. "Yes, ma'am." He responded, and watched the woman walk away, presumably to inform the rest of the byte about the mission.

Coda then slowly craned her neck upwards to face Synth as soon as the woman was out of earshot. “Since when did you and her know each other?” She whispered, demanding an explanation.

“I’ve worked with her before on many occasions,” The redhead stated simply. “Mostly on World hijacks. As stern as she is, she’s damn good at what she does.”

The creeper glanced back at Angel, who was striding up to the front of the room. “She sure is good… I can agree with that.” She still couldn’t get over how attractive she thought the woman was, even if she appeared to be in her late thirties, maybe even her early forties. A well-toned body, pretty face, full lips. It was as if she were the embodiment of a beautiful night itself-

“You thirsty again?” Synth’s chuckle snapped Coda out of her thoughts and made her cheeks heat up. However, as he opened his mouth to speak again, Coda bent her elbow and jammed it into his gut. "Ow! …alright, I deserved that."

"Ya think?"

"Okay everyone, listen up!" Angel stated loud enough to capture everyone's attention as she stepped onto the raised platform at the front of the room. "Our job today is to capture the target World, right here!" She gestured her hand to the massive screen, which had now turned on and had an expansive view of a single World, encased in several large translucent blue spheres. Firewalls. "Now, who's the Cyber soldier here?"

Almost everyone's gazes shifted to Lucky, who's figure went from already timid to extremely nervous. He gulped, and shyly raised his hand. "M-m-me, ma'am…" He squeaked.

His meek reply was only just enough to get the sniper's attention. "Alright. Can you pull up the information on this World? Anything you can find."

"Y-yes ma'am." Lucky nodded, and slowly left his corner to step up and onto the platform with Angel. He tapped the screen a few times, and a translucent keyboard appeared before him. The blonde them typed away at his console, glancing between that and the monitor. "Okay… s-so this World has received the latest known Update. And it's been around for a little over a month now."

Angel nodded slowly. “And its name?”

“Uh...” Lucky tapped away some more, eyes darting back and forth. “It doesn’t have a registered name, but it has an admin authority listed. Which is…” He then blinked a couple times, before biting his lip. "Uh oh…”

Coda raised an eyebrow. "What? What is it?" She demanded.

The shorter male timidly looked back at the creeper now eyeing him expectantly. "Th-the admin authority is listed as W.E.S." He gulped. “W-World Exploration Society.”

Almost every other member of the group grimaced at the name. The World Exploration Society was the bane of the Army’s World hijack operations. If a World had W.E.S. as its admin authority, it meant that it had at least twenty inhabitants working fulltime to make that World eventually livable and safe for the general public. Which also meant that there was at least twenty more ways that the mission could possibly go wrong.

“...well shit.” Coda said, pressing her lips into a firm line. “This is _great_. Just fuckin’ _great_.”

Sakura’s dark brown eyes shifted to the creeper. “Well… it could be worse.” She replied, trying to be optimistic.

“How the _fuck_ could this be any worse?”

The brunette flinched slightly at Coda’s response, but she continued. “We… we could be going on a suicide mission...?”

“As far as we know, this _is_ a suicide mission.” She retorted, leaning her face closer to Sakura’s, an irritated sneer on her lips.

“Hey, ladies,” Angel asserted, getting the pair’s attention with her stern and annoyed tone. “Work together here instead of going at each other’s throats.”

A new voice then spoke up. “M-ma’am…?” 

Everyone turned to see who it was, and Lucky had his hand raised. “M-maybe if we try to figure out who’s in that World… w-we could make a plan of attack easier.”

Coda locked her jet black eyes with the blonde’s. “And how would that make anythin’ easier?”

"Well… we would want to know who we're going to encounter, right?" Sakura explained. "We could get an advantage if we knew who we're up against."

Angel pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed in irritation. “Alright… Just get the list of names for the group members assigned to the World. Understood?”

The blonde nodded rapidly and saluted. “Y-yes ma’am! I-I will!” He squeaked, before heading over to his corner to type away once again, pulling up holographic screens and monitors.

The Special Ops soldier turned to face the rest of the party under her command. “Until he gets the information we need, you all can go to your own devices.” She gave them all a strong salute, standing tall. “You’re dismissed.”

Everyone else gave her a salute back, before dispersing around the room. Coda looked over at the large sparring rings, and she shrugged. She figured that while they waited for Lucky to finish his research, practicing combat wouldn’t be so bad. Plus, she had heard rumors that there were some new weapons to test out. 

“Hey, dude,” She said to get Synth’s attention onto her. “Wanna spar?”

The redhead looked over his shoulder to face his friend, and his grey eyes lit up in interest. “Yeah, sure,” He answered. “Real or fake weapons?”

Coda let out a chuckle. “Do I look like a wimp to you?”

“Don’t you remember the last time we used real ones?” Synth asked. “You nearly took my head off with that mace you had.”

“Oh, c’mon man!” She whined. “I won’t send you to the infirmary this time!"

“That’s what you said last time… and the time before that. And the time before-”

Coda huffed and raised her hands. “Aight, aight, keep ya pants on!” She stated. “But I’m still gonna get weapons for the mission, cuz right now I got nothing. And I suggest you do the same unless ya wanna be beaten to a pulp.”

Synth grinned a bit and gave a single nod. “Then shall we?” He gestured to the massive array of weapons and armor on the wall next to the sparring mats, and jokingly held out his arm for his friend to grasp.

The green creeper rolled her eyes and smiled, before wrapping her arm around his. “You’re so proper, it’s borderline annoying.” She chuckled as they walked arm in arm across the room.

“What can I say? A fine lady such as yourself needs to be treated with the greatest amount of respect.” The redhead winked at his fellow soldier.

She let out a snort of laughter. “You got the fine part right.” As soon as the two got to the massive wall of weapons and artillery, they let go of each other and went off on their own to find their desired gear.

Coda gazed at the variety of melee weapons as she slowly walked past them. Spears, daggers, staves, maces, swords. But a wide grin formed on her lips once she saw a beautiful and shining battle axe made of dark steel perched on the rack. Bold red accents ran along the edges of its two large blades and long handle, making the heavy weapon much more menacing. Just how she liked it.

“Oh hell yeah!” She eagerly made her way to the battle axe and ran her fingers along the cold metal, before grasping it with both hands and lifting it off the rack. “Come to Mama!” She turned to glance over at Synth. "What'cha picking out?"

The redhead carefully slid a long, elegant black steel sword off its perch on the wall. "This," He answered, holding it up for her to see. "You getting a gun?"

The green creeper pursed her lips in thought. "I probably should…" She said back, before lifting her heavy weapon over her shoulder with one hand and beginning to browse the next section of artillery, mostly consisting of firearms and miscellaneous weaponry, like smoke bombs or garrote wires. After a few moments, she shrugged and decided on a couple of pistols. They weren’t the most powerful guns, but they would do in a pinch.

She knelt down and tucked one of the handguns in the side of her boot. “Hey, while you're over with the training weapons, grab me one of the axes, will ya?” She called out to her friend as she concealed her weapon with the hem of her jumpsuit pant leg. 

“I’m way ahead of you,” Coda heard Synth answer. When she looked up, she saw that he was already holding two synthetic weapons in his hands; a battle axe for his friend, and a longsword for himself. “Now, think fast.”

Before she could respond, the redhead sheathed his fake blade and then threw the fake axe, sending it spiraling in Coda’s direction. “GAH!” The creeper jumped to her feet in surprise, and instinctively held her hand up. Right as the large weapon was about to smack her in the face, the axe came to a sudden halt in midair and remained there floating.

“Synth, what the hell?!” The creeper cursed out her friend, demanding an explanation. 

Synth only grinned and laughed. “I’m just testing your reflexes, that’s all,” He cooed, striding over to one of the sparring mats. “Making sure that you’ve actually been practicing telekinetic hacks.”

Coda huffed and gritted her teeth as she grasped the hovering axe. “Fuck you, man,” She lifted her weapon up over her shoulder, and she walked over to the opposite side of the large mat. “Anyway… Ya ready?”

Synth twirled his sword in his hand, standing tall. “Ready,”

Coda’s grip on her training axe tightened, and she grinned. “On my count.” She stated. “One…”

Both friends adjusted their stances, preparing for the brawl about to ensue.

“Two...”

The creeper felt her heart pumping, loving the adrenaline rush through her body. Her sharp-toothed smile grew wider at the feeling. It was a feeling that thought she was timeless. And she couldn’t wait to actually go out and fight in the field head on against the enemy.

“Three!”

The two soldiers then rushed at each other, weapons poised and ready to strike. Coda was the first to make a move, swinging her large axe in a large arc at Synth’s torso. Though Synth quickly leaned to the side and dodged the attempted blow, before making a quick swing of his own with his sword. 

They kept swinging back and forth, dodging and blocking each other’s strikes, using teleportation and speed hacks to their advantage. As violent and hasty as it appeared, it was almost graceful. The two had gotten sparring down to almost an art form, after all. Maybe training side by side for years was starting to take its toll; actually landing a hit on one another was proving to be more and more difficult with each fight. 

It wasn’t until after several long, neverending moments that one managed to land a blow on the other. Coda and Synth’s weapons clashed against each other, and the creeper managed to send the human’s sword flying out of his hand and across the mat. Seeing her chance, she swung her axe at his feet and knocked him onto the floor.

Coda pressed her boot against his chest, resting the edge of her synthetic weapon on his neck. A mischievous but tired smile danced on her lips. "I...I think I won." She said in between labored breaths.

Synth coughed, but grinned back as his friend moved the axe away from him and lifted her foot off of his torso. "About time." He said, before sitting up and holding out a hand, which Coda properly grasped to help him up. “You’ve gotten pretty decent with that handling that axe. I remember when you could barely hold one of those.”

The creeper rolled her eyes, managing to finally catch her breath. “That was when I first met ya, dude,” She chuckled. “Almost ten years ago! I was still a twig back then! Now I literally bench press you like it’s nothin’!” She lifted the training axe over her shoulder. “Plus these things are a lot lighter than the actual weapons.”

“His point still stands.” Angel’s voice caught the two friends off guard. They turned, and saw that she stood a few yards away, with a familiar blank expression on her face. “You did good.”

Coda felt her cheeks heat up a bit, and she gave the woman a nod, clearing her throat. “Thank you, ma’am.”

A small moment of silence passed, and then the creeper felt a hand on her shoulder. “I… think I’ll leave you two alone for a bit.” Synth said, making his friend look up at him in confusion. “Get to know each other a bit more.” He winked, a playful glint in his eye. At that moment, she immediately knew what he was trying to pull.

Coda gritted her teeth in irritation as he walked off, presumably to interact with the rest of the team. She glanced back at Angel, who’s expression remained pretty much the same. “Uh… so you’ve heard ‘bout me? From Synth?” She asked, in an attempt to try and make conversation. Internally, she was growing frustrated; normally this wouldn’t have affected her so much. Why did Angel have to be so pretty?

The ebony woman nodded as a response to her question. “I have. He talks about you quite a bit, actually.” She said. “I’m presuming that you’ve known each other for some time?”

The creeper internally sighed in relief at how the feeling of butterflies in her stomach began to fade. “Yes, we have,” She answered. “We met a little after I finished my training and officially became enlisted. About ten years ago.”

Angel raised an eyebrow slightly. “So you’re about twenty eight?” She questioned. “That’s quite young to be a Specialist. Most reach that title in their thirties.”

Coda chuckled. “I’m not most people,” She replied. “And neither are you. There’s so many rumors about ya I can barely keep track of which ones are legit and which aren’t.”

"Oh?" The sniper tilted her head a bit. "And what would these rumors contain?"

The creeper let out another laugh. "Well… people say that ya can empty a clip in the blink of an eye. Don't know how that started."

To Coda's surprise, something new glinted in Angel's dark gaze, though she couldn't tell what it was. "You don't trust the rumors?" She asked.

"Not really," She stated. "I know you're a good shot, but I doubt you can shoot that quick-"

Angel suddenly drew a gun off of her belt and aimed at three targets all the way across the room. Three loud shots sounded out, and the trio of targets exploded in a bright array of red pixels, before flashing white and returning to their original, untouched state. The sniper stood strong for a moment with her arm raised and smoking pistol poised, before calmly holstering it on her hip. “You believe the rumors now?” She asked.

Coda’s eyes were wide at what just occurred, feeling absolutely flabbergasted. “H...h-heh…” Her face began to feel hot as she blushed. She couldn’t even see the woman fire each individual shot, she was that quick. How could she have fired three bullets in the blink of an eye and have each one meet its mark perfectly? Aimbot? Speed? Haste? The creeper thought and thought, and drew nothing but a blank.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Angel snapped Coda out of her thoughts, before striding away and leaving the creeper flustered and shocked.

This woman would be the death of her.

"I take it the chat went a bit south?" Synth's voice sounded next to the green creeper, though this time it didn't make her jump. Her focus was still fixed on her superior's figure as she walked off.

"...how is she such a badass…?" Coda mumbled.

"I ask myself every day, Coda," The human replied, before patting her shoulder a couple of times. "Come on. I think maybe getting your focus on something else will snap you back to your old asshat self." He then led his friend across the room after wrapping his arm around her shoulders. "Sakura! Is that thing of yours almost done?"

Sakura was near Jazz, Nix, and Grey, who had gathered around her to see what she was up to. "Almost!" She called, her back facing Coda and Synth.

The closer the pair got to the mechanic, the more curious she became. "What are ya doing…?" Coda asked as she and Synth were close enough to see what she was apparently working on.

The short brunette's thin eyes lit up, and she gave a warm smile. "I've been working on…" She then turned around to proudly hold up what appeared to be a small metal box with a single button on top. "This!" She stated proudly, before setting the box on the ground.

The green creeper eyed the gadget curiously. “Uh...What’s that…?” She looked back up at the brunette who set it on the floor.

"Just watch," Sakura said, before she pressed the button on the device. As she took several steps away, the metallic contraption began to unfold and expand with whirrs and clicks and hums. In a matter of moments, the final parts shifted into place, making a massive and powerful mech that towered over everybody else in the room.

Jazz's eyes widened in awe. "Woah…" A wide grin formed on his face, and he turned to Sakura. "Can I try it?! Please!!" He asked, repeatedly bouncing up and down where he stood.

Before the mechanic could respond, Angel calmly spoke up. "If you let’em in that thing, he’ll blow us up in five minutes." She called from across the room, soon approaching. "Don't let him near it."

The blue-haired soldier frowned. "Aww, please?" He begged his superior. "I promise I'll be caref-"

Only one quick glare at him was enough to silence Jazz. All of the color drained from his cheeks in a matter of seconds. "Y...yes ma'am…" He uttered.

Coda snorted as she held back a laugh. Even though she had known Angel for less than an hour, she was already growing a liking to her, and not just for her good looks or the fact that she got butterflies when she spoke to her. To her, the older woman was very admirable.

The ebony woman then shifted her gaze back to Sakura. "You can get back to testing your mech, Sergeant." She stated.

The mechanic blinked, but then smiled, before stepping up to the back of her creation and pulling two levers simultaneously to open what appeared to be the cockpit. Pulling herself up and into the mech, she laid down in the snug chamber and pressed a few buttons, and the machine whirred to life, a control panel with dozens of buttons and dials and levers lighting up as a result.

Grey's faded blue eyes widened slightly, impressed at the complex and beautiful piece of machinery. "I'll be damned…" He said, before looking through the windshield of the mech and at Sakura. "You made this by yourself?"

The girl nodded. "Yup!" She answered, her voice slightly muffled. "This is the latest model of what I call the Redstone Operated Shadowbyte Automaton. Or R.O.S.A. for short." The brunette patted the side of the cockpit. "Takes a lot to maintain her, but she's a beauty."

Synth eyed the mech with interest, specifically the guns. “Do you mind showing us it works?”

“Sure, I don’t see why not,” Sakura replied. “I’ve got to make sure the firing mechanisms work anyway, so I can show you those. Just don’t get in front of me when I do.”

The brunette grasped two lever-like controllers on her console, outfitted with several buttons and triggers. She pushed them both forward, and the mech swiftly moved across the floor to the small firing range, making soft stomps with every step. "Now, stand back!" Sakura called out as the automaton's two machine gun arms lifted. The submachine guns soon spun and whirred to life, and before anybody could say anything, a bright display of red hot plasma charges flew across the room towards the targets and obliterated them in an instant. 

Jazz’s eyes lit up at the sight, and his jaw dropped. “Holy shit! That’s awesome!!” He exclaimed as the gunfire slowly ceased, and the mech’s operator exited.

A light blush spread across Sakura’s face at the praise. “Aw, it was nothing...” She answered, smiling shyly.

Angel then spoke up. “Don’t sell yourself short,” She stated. “You have a great piece of machinery here-”

Her sentence was cut off as she felt a tap on her shoulder and heard Lucky’s voice. "M-ma'am, I've got it…"

The sniper raised an eyebrow, and shifted her focus to the timid blonde now next to her. "What was that?"

"I-I've got it… I've got the names of the group members." He repeated.

Coda's eyes widened in interest. "Well, what're ya waiting for? Show us!"

With the seven other soldier’s eyes focused on him, Lucky began to sweat. “Y-yes, of course!” He answered, and rushed to the front of the room where the massive screen hung. After tapping on it a few times, the empty monitor then lit up brightly once he made a final tap on his wrist communicator. On the screen, over two dozen photos of different people popped up, each with their own sets of information and data pouring in.

Sakura’s jaw dropped at the sight. “Oh my goodness…” She said. “All of those people are in that one World?”

“P-possibly,” Lucky replied, and swiped his hand across the screen. The portraits then enlarged to show only one at a time, with their personal details next to the images. Both slowly scrolled by, displaying each member for a moment before moving onto the next. “But most likely… yes. They’ll likely all be on at the same time…”

Coda let out a huff. “Aw, shit… great.” She grumbled. “Now we’ve got _more_ witnesses to take care of…”

Synth turned to the creeper next to him. “Unless we have the element of surprise.” He countered. “Even if there is that many people, they’re bound to be spread quite thin.”

“He’s right,” Angel agreed, stepping up next to the two friends. “We’ll need to be stealthy about this. As long as we stay below the radar, these guys won’t suspect a thing.” She kept her gaze on the profiles continuously scrolling by. “Besides, think about it... if we don’t kill them, we’ll have more possible soldiers to take in.”

The blonde Cyber soldier lifted his head up to face the sniper. “U-uhh… n-not to be rude, ma’am, but… a-are you sure they’d want to join…?”

“Like I said. Possible soldiers.” The woman repeated. “If some join, great. If not… that’s more for us to clean up.”

Grey's face contorted into a frown. "Being a cleaner isn't part of my job description. Or Nix's." He gestured to his student, who stood next to him awkwardly.

"Ya deal with blood and guts all the time, old man," Coda countered. "You have been for years."

"Exactly my point. I don't want to deal with any more than I already do."

The creeper huffed, crossing her arms. "It isn't _that_ bad-"

"Hey," Angel stated forcefully, interrupting the two's debate. "Another day."

While the older male fell silent and nodded, Coda only got more defiant, even if she did respect the woman as her superior. "Why the hell not? Ya already-" 

The team's leader flicked a finger in the soldier's direction, and a small burst of pixels erupted from the tip. No more sound then came out of Coda's mouth, although her lips kept moving as if she were still talking. Angel muted her.

"That's better," The sniper said, before turning her attention back to the other six members of the byte, completely ignoring Coda's silent bout of anger and frustration. "Now, where were we?"

Lucky hesitantly raised his hand. "W-we were talking about how we could get possible recruits from this World...?" He answered. 

Angel nodded in the blonde's direction. "Good. You were paying attention." She said, and then turned to face Coda. “Unlike some people.”

The creeper could only respond by scowling and crossing her arms, appearing to have let out a frustrated grumble.

The ebony woman continued. "Anyway… with the amount of people residing in the World, there's bound to be someone who has some sort of hacking experience." She gestured to the massive screen of scrolling profiles. "If we can get more than one, then that's most definitely an added bonus."

Sakura raised her hand. "Ma'am, if I may ask… isn't there a way for us to tell if any of those members are a possible threat…? If they have any record of hacking in their files?" She asked.

Angel tapped her chin. "I suppose there could be a way to find out." She shifted her dark gaze to Lucky. "Hey, you able to check each of their backgrounds for anything iffy? Filter out which ones we need to look out for?" 

The short blonde nodded. "Yes ma'am," He tapped the large screen, and a large translucent keyboard pixelated before him. His fingers flew across the console, tapping keys left and right. After a moment, the photos on the screen stopped scrolling, and zoomed out to show all two dozen profiles again. "Anything in particular you want me to search?"

"Check to see if any of them have military records, combat experience, maybe even records of hacking." She answered, shifting her gaze back to the group of profiles on the wall. "We shouldn't leave anything to chance."

Lucky gave another nod and set to work. Text spread across the screen as he typed, before disappearing as quickly as it appeared. Over half a dozen of the profile pictures then flashed a bright green, and expanded to only present themselves on the giant monitor.

"The first one is listed as Biffa2001…" Lucky started, expanding the photo furthest to the left; a man that appeared to be more machine than alive. The only flesh visible was his face, which was covered in countless scars. "He used to be a bomb tech in his home World's army, but was honorably discharged after…" Lucky then visibly cringed at what he read next, eyes wide. "L-losing over fifty percent of his body when trying to disable an IED… He had to get a specialized suit and prosthetics so he could walk again..."

Sakura blinked and bit her nails. "Oh gosh…" She muttered. “Please tell me it only gets better from here…”

Lucky shrugged, appearing uncertain. “I-I… I have no clue.” He replied, before typing once again and moving onto the profile next to Biffa’s. "Okay… This guy here is DocM77." Lucky enlarged the photograph on the monitor, giving a more detailed look at a creeper with visible metal cybernetics on his face. "Used to be a military scientist and mechanic before becoming an employee for W.E.S." The blonde blinked. "Nothing much else in his file other than that one of his experiments went wrong and he had to have a bunch of his body replaced with cybernetics."

Jazz, although not looking up at the monitor, spoke up as he continued to play his game. “You think that these guys would be more careful with their bodies,” He said.

Grey chuckled and nodded. “Good point, kid. Looks like the rest’ve had better luck though.”

"Next up… FalseSymmetry." The focus on Doc's photo shifted to the profile of the blonde woman next to him. "Former military commander, dozens of awards for valor and bravery. Left a few years ago to become apart of W.E.S." He tapped a few more times on his keyboard. "It doesn't say why she left though… as far as it looks, she was better off where she was."

"Everyone has their reasons," Angel stated. "But I doubt she's forgotten how to defend herself. Who's next?"

The Cyber soldier immediately followed her order and scrolled to the next member in question, a man with spiky brown hair and a missing eye, replaced with a mechanical one. "His name is Iskall85, according to his file." He answered. "Another military guy… Ooo, ouch…" He cringed at the line of text he was reading. "Discharged honorably after getting his eye shot out by a sniper. He literally never saw it coming, pun int-"

Angel interrupted him. "Lucky… next one." She said.

Lucky gulped and nodded nervously. "Y-yes, of course!" He then tapped his keyboard, making the view on Iskall's photograph shift to the next person. "This one is listed as… Mumbo Jumbo." He stated, gesturing to the photo of a thin man with black hair and a moustache to match. "Famous redstone engineer turned W.E.S. employee. He's pretty young, too… only twenty-three years old."

"He looks like a pipe cleaner with eyes," Coda's snicker caught the rest of the group off guard. Most turned to face her, and she had a smirk on her lips. "And yeah, the mute wore off finally. Ya can't shut me up forever." She then pulled out a small pack of gum from her back pocket and tossed a piece in her mouth, proceeding to chew and blow a pink bubble with it.

Synth raised an eyebrow at his friend, but decided against saying anything and looked back at the younger blonde. "But how is he a threat? Like she said… he doesn't appear to be that tough."

"He has a military record… s-sort of." Lucky answered. "Apparently a few years ago, he designed redstone machines and weaponry for a war going on in his home World. And they must've been pretty good, because he got a significant amount of compensation for making them."

"How much did he get?" Sakura questioned.

"Umm…" The blonde scrolled through the information next to Mumbo's photograph, before a single line of text highlighted and kept blinking on and off. "Woah… He got hundreds of millions of bits for the inventions he made!"

Coda's gum bubble burst loudly the moment Lucky finished his sentence. "Wait, what?" She asked, showing genuine surprise. "He's a multimillionaire? Why would he even be employed?"

Lucky blinked. "Wh...what do you mean?"

The creeper held her hand up and rubbed her fingers and thumb together. "Well, he has over a million reasons to not risk having his ass kicked in some untamed World. He has enough bits to retire and kick back."

Lucky shrugged. "I… I guess you have a point." He then cleared his throat, before moving along to the next member, a creeper with coal black eyes and ruby red scales. "A-anyhow, this is PythonGB, a former military soldier. A decorated one, too; a lot of awards for bravery and skill, even some of the highest honors you can get. Left a few years ago to join W.E.S." Lucky then blinked in surprise. "Huh… and it says he's only in his early twenties, too. How did me manage to become so talented so young…?"

"Doesn't matter." Angel stated. "All that matters is that he has skills. And a lot of 'em." 

The Cyber soldier nodded, slightly nervous. "T-true, ma'am…" He scrolled over to the next profile, of a blonde man decked out in an almost medieval style of iron armor. "N-next up is Welsknight. Also former military… he's a bit older though. Nothing much other than that in his file…"

"What about the last one? On the right here?" Synth asked, gesturing to the photo of a man in green armor, his face hidden by a massive helmet covering his whole head.

"Uhh…" Lucky tapped the monitor a few times, expanding the profile picture so it was the only photo on the screen. "Okay, this guy is…" He blinked at the name next to the image. "Eye-sumavoid? Egg-sumavoid? Ex-sumavoid?" After a moment, he just shook his head. "Nevermind… A-anyway, there isn't much on him, either, but it does say that he has a lot of experience with putting up firewalls around Worlds. And by the reviews he has, they're pretty good at keeping malware out."

Coda then took a step closer to the screen, arms crossed. "So… In total, we've got a scrawny redstone genius, two badass blondies, a wannabe turtle, a military child prodigy, and three cyborgs…" Her gaze was fixed on the monitor for a moment, before she turned away. "All of 'em with some sort of background that could make the whole mission fall apart… Great."

Grey's eyes focused on the eight photos. "Geez, with that many people with that kind of combat experience, that group sounds more like a rogue militia than anything else."

"Umm… I don't think they're exactly called that." Lucky corrected shyly. "A-as far as I know, each group hired by W.E.S. has the option to choose their own name. To make it easier to identify them."

The older medic raised an eyebrow. "Well… what _do_ they call themselves?"

Lucky turned to the screen and zoomed it outwards, so all of the images could be shown at once like they had moments before. A single name in bold lettering was at the top of the cluster of photographs.

HermitCraft.


	2. Chapter 2

**Lucky**

Guns popping. Swords clashing. Machinery whirring. People chatting.

Lucky hated all of the noise.

The blonde was up against the wall of the block, fidgeting with a stray bullet casing he found on the floor and trying to distance his mind away from his surroundings. Almost everyone else around him was sparring or preparing for the world hijack mission. After Lucky had shared all of the information he found with the team, Nightingale had dismissed everyone and ordered them to continue preparing until it was time to leave.

That was almost half an hour ago, and Lucky had absolutely  _ nothing _ . No weapons, no armor, nothing but the clothes on his back, the googles perched on his head, and the boots on his feet.

Maybe trying to drown out the sound wasn't a good idea after all.

Lucky peeled his gaze from the bullet casing in between his fingers and leaned away from the wall. His eyes shifted around the room from person to person; Coda and Jazz testing their guns on the firing range, Nightingale picking out some armor from the racks, Sakura trying to work out the kinks of her mech. All he needed was to get a weapon and a set of armor in the next ten or so minutes.

Simple.

The blonde started to make his way to the rack of blades and guns, returning to the safety of his wandering mind as he walked. Maybe if he just pretended he was somewhere else, he wouldn't be so on edge. The thought of his bunker in the Cyber Division’s segment of the Hive sounded heavenly. Nobody to bother him, peace and quiet; nothing but him and his holographic monitors-

He was snapped out of his thoughts once he suddenly smacked himself against the rack of weaponry, causing many of the blades and guns to rattle on their perches. “Gah!!” A bright red blush of embarrassment flushed across his freckled cheeks, and he wildly glanced around at everyone else in the room, desperately hoping that nobody saw. But as far as he could tell, every person he could see at that moment was still focused on their own activities.

Lucky let out a shaky sigh of relief before turning back to the artillery he came to examine in the first place. Swords, axes, guns and explosives. How dangerous was the mission supposed to be? Soon his gaze landed on a small serrated knife, and he figured that at least something sharp would come in handy.

The blonde carefully grasped the dagger’s handle and took it off its perch, looking back at his reflection in the shiny blade. The idea of using a weapon was still a very foreign concept to him. He only went through the standard amount of combat training, unlike most soldiers, who started off in either Infantry or Medical to further their experience in the field. Instead, he was immediately put into the Cyber division. His knack for interfering with a World’s code and gathering information on the fly is what landed him a spot, despite his age and lack of physical skills and strengths.

And even after eight years of experience, he mostly remained the same. He was still quite scrawny, and he wasn’t that strong either. But it wasn’t too bad. He never had to operate or use any sort of larger artillery anyway.

“You picking out a weapon?”

Lucky jumped at the voice, his grip on his knife tightening. Once he looked to see who it was, he saw the Infantry soldier with long red hair standing a few feet away. What was his name again? Seth? Seth. That sounded about right.

“Hey, it’s alright,” Seth assured, holding his hands up. “Jumpy much, aren’t we?”

The Cyber soldier’s face reddened. “U-uhh… s-sorry…” He cleared his throat. “Y-yeah, I’m just… g-getting a dagger.”

The redhead raised a brow. “That’s it?”

Lucky shrugged, holding his blade closer to him. “Y-yeah… wh-why do you ask…?”

Seth glanced over at the weapon rack. “You should at least have a gun on hand. Can’t have our techie be unarmed now, can we?” He then reached his hands up to a large assault rifle and picked it up off its shelf.

"U-uhh…" The blonde timidly raised a finger, eyes filled with worry at the sight of the gun. "I-I don't think I have permission to use those…?"

"Then let’s make sure you don’t get caught.” Seth replied, a charming grin on his lips. He grabbed the younger soldier’s dagger and set the rifle in his hands, who then stumbled a bit at how heavy it was.

“U-umm…!” Lucky tried to get a better grasp on the large gun, but every time he tried to adjust his hands, he felt like he would drop the weapon on the floor and possibly damage it. “I-I don’t know if this is a good idea…!”

The taller redhead tightened his ponytail and chuckled. “Alright, alright,” He grabbed a hold of the rifle and removed it from the Cyber soldier’s grip, trading him his knife back. “Just playing with you.” He said, before strapping the gun to a holster on his back. “Now, don’t die out there.” Seth winked, and before the younger male could respond, he suddenly disappeared in a flash of red pixels, leaving the blonde all alone.

Lucky wiped some sweat from his forehead, still shaken by the ordeal. “O...okay…” He squeaked out to the empty air, and glanced back down at the dagger in his hand. Maybe he  _ should _ get a gun…

“Don’t let him get under your skin.”

Another sudden voice made the blonde jump and shriek where he stood. He snapped his head around and readied his knife, but glanced up to see Nightingale’s tall figure standing before him, now donning a set of sleek black plated armor, a dark combat helmet tucked under her arm. Her face was expressionless, as it had been for most of the hour or so he had seen her.

“M-ma’am...!” He stuttered to his superior, taken off guard by her abrupt appearance. He quickly drew back his blade and looked at the floor in shame. “I-I…uhh-”

“No need to apologize,” The ebony woman cut him off, her gaze empty and void of almost any emotion. “It was a justified move.”

Lucky shakily lifted his gaze back to Nightingale. “A...are you sure, ma’am…?” He asked, . “I-I could have hurt you…”

“Lucky, as far as I can tell, weapons aren’t something you’re used to handling.”

The blonde’s face turned scarlet at the statement. “I-I...umm…” He struggled to come up with a response, but soon caved and gave the sniper a nod. “Y...yes, ma’am…”

Nightingale continued, simultaneously slipping the helmet under her arm over her head. “And there’s nothing to be ashamed about that.” She shifted her gaze to a sleek set of black and red armor perched on a nearby mannequin, and was silent for a brief moment. "Here, take this." She held out her hand and made a fist, before pulling her arm back in. As if drawn to her movements, the dummy zoomed across the tiled floor towards the pair, wobbling slightly when it came to a stop.

Lucky blinked in confusion, before realization set in and he understood what the woman wanted him to do. "O-oh!" He then stepped up to the figure and began to slip the pieces of high tech gear on, one by one.

“Now, a word of advice,” Nightingale said as she pulled a large black and red quarterstaff off the rack and began to examine it. “Know that combat is much more than using a sword or a gun,” She stated, twirling the long weapon in her hands. “You play to  _ your _ strengths. Use them to  _ your _ advantage.”

The blonde’s movements stopped as he was about to put on the helmet of his armor set. "I...I'm sorry, ma'am?" What strengths? He could barely lift a sword without having it shake in his hands.

The sniper pressed a button on the side of her helmet, and the visor hiding her face retracted. “I don’t just mean physical capabilities, Lucky.” She replied, and suddenly threw her spinning staff up above her head. Lucky was filled with immediate worry of getting hit by the rod as it began to fall back down, but just before it could, Nightingale flicked her hand in its direction, causing it to hover in midair. “Your hacks play a key role in how well you perform out on the battlefield. Don’t be afraid to get creative with them.” She said, before grabbing the staff and holstering it on her back.

Lucky thought for a moment, but just as he opened his mouth to reply, he heard a loud  _ beep _ come from Nightingale’s communicator. Aware of the noise, she lifted her wrist up closer to her face to have a look, before she raised her voice to get everyone’s attention. “Nine thirty, people! Whether you’re ready or not, it’s time to move!” 

The blonde flinched at her loud statement, but quickly slipped his visored helmet onto his head. He glanced around at everyone in the room, and they were all decked out with powerful armor and weapons. Even the two medics had equipped some artillery that put Lucky’s light armor and dagger to shame. Still, the thought of a gun was all too scary…

But he turned around and snatched a pistol from the weapon rack anyway, quickly tucking it in his boot before following his colleagues out the doors.

~~~~~

Lucky was left alone to his thoughts while he and the rest of the byte made their way down the bustling foyer. He could feel the barrel of the pistol he grabbed rub against the side of his foot with each step he took, and he silently hoped he wouldn't get a blister.

The blonde shifted his gaze around at the soldiers walking in front of him. Nightingale in the lead, Coda and Grey on her left and right, and Seth, Sakura, and Nix behind her…

But where was Jazz?

"Hey dude."

Even though that was the third time in the span of thirty minutes that somebody spoke up from behind him, Lucky still reacted the same exact way; he shrieked, jumped, and spun around to see who it was. But instead of fearing the person he saw, the nervous feeling in his chest disappeared at the sight of the Special Ops soldier with bright blue hair and eyes. Jazz.

“J-Jazz!” The blonde exclaimed. He then crossed his arms, pouting a bit. “You scared me!”

Lucky could practically  _ feel _ the smirk radiating off of Jazz’s face. “Aw, c’mon,” He chuckled. “I can’t have some fun with my baby brother?”

Lucky puffed out his cheeks in embarrassment at what his older brother called him. “J-Jazz… I’m twenty six.”

“And I’m thirty.” The blue-haired man patted the top of his brother’s helmet, chuckling. “You’re  _ always _ going to be my little bro.” He then pressed two buttons on the side his own helmet to retract his visor and reveal the top half of his face. “And even if you try and deny it, you can’t. We look way too similar for you to hide it."

The shorter brother sighed a bit. “I know…” He often wondered how he and Jazz could have been related in the first place. Sure, they were both naturally blue-eyed blondes, and they had strikingly similar facial features, but all similarities stopped there. Jazz was much taller and appeared much stronger than him, not to mention his colorfully dyed hair. His personality was also the complete opposite of his younger brother’s; Lucky was timid and constantly anxious, while Jazz was laid back and much more extroverted, even courageous.

Maybe that’s why Lucky was put into the Cyber Division. He couldn’t do anything else but type away at a keyboard and be an information hotline for people in the field to call. And yet his brother was all the way at Special Ops, carrying out classified missions and taking on the most dangerous and sickening tasks the Shadowbyte Army ever had to do. From stopping a corrupted World from spreading their infected code to another, to taking down the leaders of child trafficking rings, Special Ops soldiers did it all. They were the heroes, the ones put on a pedestal and praised, the ones given stacks upon stacks of medals and awards by Ecryptos himself.

As much as he hated to admit it, he was deeply jealous of Jazz. Jealous of the fact that people actually appreciated what he did. Jealous of how people didn’t push him around like a ragdoll. Jealous of how the leader of the entire Army even acknowledged his existence.

But Lucky could never get angry at his brother. As envious as he was, he looked up to him and cared for him immensely; he was the only family he ever knew, after all. Both of their parents had died when Lucky was just a few months old, leaving him and Jazz with nowhere to go. But a small recruitment unit was stationed in their home World, and once they found them, they took the two boys and brought them back to Fort Oblivion without a second thought. They were saved from an otherwise cruel fate and given a brand new home. Just like the countless amounts of other children taken under Ecryptos’ wing over the many years since his founding of the Army.

And Lucky was more than grateful for that. 

“Lucky?” Jazz’s voice made his train of thought screech to a halt. “Lucky, you in there?”

“Hmm?” The blonde blinked and glanced up at his brother. “O-oh, yeah, I’m here.”

“Spaced out again?”

Lucky fell silent, and gave a shy laugh. “U-uhh… maybe…?”

Jazz let out a small chuckle in return. "It's alright, you didn't miss much." He then gestured up ahead of him and the rest of the group, where a large mechanical door could be seen. The entrance to a proxy teleportation hub. "If anything, you skipped on some of the waiting."

The blonde blinked. "O-oh!" His freckled cheeks turned slightly red. “W-well… I guess that’s good…?”

Jazz let out another laugh. “Never change, dude,” His older brother patted his shoulder. “Never change.” Now outside the metal doors, he walked through as they opened, revealing a large, circular platform in the center of an otherwise empty chamber, save for a window which appeared to have a control room on the other side, harboring only a single soldier. “Now, come on.”

Lucky followed his brother and the rest of the byte into the room, the doors shutting behind him. He took a breath of assurance as he stepped onto the raised part of the floor, and his eyes wandered around everyone in the group, eventually landing in Nightingale. 

And not a moment later, the ebony woman lifted her head and gave a nod to the soldier in the control booth, who gave a thumbs up back before pressing a few buttons on their console. Loud sirens blared and flashed on the walls as the platform beneath everybody’s feet gradually lit up. The blonde soon felt the nervous thumping of his heart in his ears; the sirens always put him on edge.

“Beginning proxy teleportation sequence.” A calm, robotic voice echoed over the alarms as the red glow grew brighter and brighter. “Please remain on the platform so you safely arrive at your destination.”

Lucky soon squeezed his eyes shut when the light filling the chamber became too intense to bear. A weightless feeling bubbled up in his chest as he felt his feet slowly lift off the ground, before all of the air suddenly left his lungs and the blaring sirens in his ears ceased. He hesitantly cracked his eyes open, and was met with an inky darkness peppered with tiny puffs of dust floating through the air.

The Void.

“Hey, bro!” Jazz’s voice crackled in Lucky’s ear, making him flinch at the sudden noise. “Down here!”

“Huh?” The blonde glanced below him, and he saw the rest of the byte about ten meters below him. All of them had their focus straight on his hovering figure, with Jazz waving his arms. “O-oh! Sorry...!” He slowly adjusted the flight hack given to him by the proxy, allowing himself to lower towards his seven colleagues.

Nightingale kept her helmeted gaze on him as he descended. "As long as you don't get lost, you'll be fine," She said through the intercom, before gesturing behind Lucky. "Which I doubt will happen, given that our target World is right behind you."

Lucky blinked and turned to look over his shoulder. In the distance, a massive blue sphere stood out against the darkness surrounding it, giving off a bright light. The faint outline of a darker blue orb could be seen inside the bubble, at the exact center. HermitCraft.

"Well, what're we waiting for?" Coda asked, before her flight hack disabled. "C'mon, this World isn't gonna hijack itself!" However, instead of plummeting into the endless darkness, her feet landed on the air beneath her as if it were completely solid. Air walking hacks. 

“Hold your horses, kid,” Grey stated as his own flight hack faded away and made him fall for a moment, only to enable another one to remain hovering in the air. Many others followed suit, save for Nix, who used an air walking hack, and Sakura, who had activated her mech and climbed inside, activating the jets to keep herself from taking a nosedive into the Void. 

The creeper turned to face the medic. “Who ya callin’ kid?” She placed her hands on her hips. “I-”

“Do you  _ want _ to get muted again, Coda?” Seth nudged his friend with his elbow, in an attempt to try and prevent a repeat of what had happened before.

Coda fell silent, before letting out a huff. “Fine.” She crossed her arms, appearing to make an attempt at standing in place and not running off. “But I swear, if we don’t-”

Nightingale then cut her off, her tone stern and harsh. “Watch your tongue, Coda.” She looked down at the creeper, and even though she didn’t have her focus on him, Lucky felt the hairs on his neck stand up at her words. “It  _ will _ get you into trouble, and you might not be able to get yourself out of it. Am I clear?”

To Lucky’s surprise, the soldier’s confident body language faltered for a moment. “Y...yes ma’am,” She answered, her shoulders slightly drooping.

“Wise decision,” The sniper then took her gaze from Coda to the rest of the byte. “Now, you all know the drill. Once we get to the border, the rest of us will stay on guard while Lucky disables the firewalls.” She made a small gesture to the short blonde. “We then get inside, split up, regroup when one of us find the main area of operation, and round up each and every member. Secure who you can… bag the rest.” Her floating figure then rose higher. “Now, move in.”

Lucky saluted along with everyone else. As people began to fly or teleport or airwalk towards the World, however, the Cyber soldier continued to hover in place, closing his eyes; he had to focus to get it to work. He felt a buzzing sensation in his chest grow and grow, before it all burst in what felt like a static shock, and he activated a teleportation hack that zipped him all the way to the World’s firewalls in one shot. His stomach churned for a brief moment, only to quickly settle right as the rest of his colleagues arrived.

The blonde, feeling more secure that the rest of the team was there, floated up to the firewall and tapped on it twice, and a large holographic panel pixelated before him. Countless lines of seemingly indecipherable code ran past his vision, but he knew what every single one meant and did. He lifted his hands up to the screen and began to type, sifting through the code to try and disarm the massive force fields.

Several moments of silence ensued, surrounded by the faint echoes of the Void, the pulsing of the firewalls, and Lucky’s typing. “...so when you gonna be done?” Coda asked over the intercom after about a minute, an impatient tone to her voice. 

Before Lucky could respond, Jazz spoke up in defense of his brother. “Give him time, Coda,” He gave a stern reply to the creeper, giving her an answer to her question. “There’s five firewalls to take down, and it isn’t as easy as you think it might be-”

The soldier suddenly fell silent, before he spoke again, this time in a panic. “Shit, we’ve got trouble!” He stated. “Malware, six o’ clock!”

The blonde almost stopped his typing at what he had heard his brother announce. “M-malware? Already?!” He stuttered. “What is it…?” He instinctively looked behind him, and he saw what Jazz was talking about. A massive rope-like figure made of blue and black pixels slithered and twisted in the Void, flying closer towards the team. A single red eye glowed on its large head, and it unhinged its jaw to show off several rows of razor sharp teeth and let out a terrifying, static-filled roar.

“Is that what I think it is?!” Seth asked, slowly pulling out his assault rifle.

Lucky gulped and nodded. “Th-that’s a worm…” 

His mind nearly went into a panic just at the sight of the malware barreling towards him and the other seven soldiers. How could a worm get that large? He knew that all worms did was eat anything they could find to get bigger, but they would reach only about five meters in length before they were found and destroyed. This one surpassed that mark by a landslide. Eighty meters? Ninety? A hundred?! The worm was moving too swiftly to tell. And how did it manage to only appear then?! Somebody should have heard something!

It was the sound of gunshots that snapped Lucky out of his thoughts. Coda had snatched Seth’s rifle out of his hands and fired several times at the rapidly approaching malware in the distance.

“Wait, stop!!” Lucky panicked, reaching his hand out. “Bullets aren’t going to do anything! It’s too big!”

“Well, what the fuck are we supposed to do?!” Coda screamed and turned to look over at the blonde. “We’re sitting ducks if we don’t kill that thing!”

“J-Just… Just buy me some time!” Lucky felt his breathing quicken as he typed faster. He had to find the core of the firewall’s security and shut it down, and quick.

“He’s right!” Nightingale added. “Everyone, fan out! Keep that worm occupied!”

The Cyber soldier turned away from the group, flinching as he heard more roars from the worm. He had to resist the urge to look back at his team, back at the imminent danger. What was going on? The malware was screeching and letting out ear splitting cries, so much so that he couldn’t hear anybody else. All he could do was type and tap and push buttons as fast as he could…

And then he made it to the arming system on his panel of code. With one final smash of a button, every single firewall disappeared in a shower of blue pixels before his eyes, leaving the World inside completely exposed.

“They’re down!” Lucky shouted into his earpiece. “They’ll come back up in ten seconds, so we’ve gotta get in there  _ NOW _ !”

_ Ten… nine... _ __   
  
The byte began racing towards the World as fast as they could, Lucky in the lead. Nightingale, Grey, and Jazz activated flight hacks, Seth and Lucky started teleporting, Coda and Nix used speed hacks as they activated airwalks, and Sakura activated the propulsion jets on her R.O.S.A. and flew alongside the group. All were determined to get inside the World before they were locked out and had to face a grim demise.

_ Eight… seven... _

The worm let out another fearsome cry, and Lucky instinctively glanced over his shoulder as he teleported from place to place. He wished he didn’t; the terrifying piece of malware was getting closer, sharp teeth on display and hungry for a fresh kill. The blonde felt his heart pound against his ribcage at the sight, and he immediately cried out over the intercom. “It’s gaining on us!”

_ Six... _

“Ya think we can’t hear that damn thing?!” Coda shouted back.

_ Five… _

“Let’s try to focus on  _ not _ getting eaten, hmm?!” Nightingale ordered.

_ Four... _

Another roar echoed behind the group of eight. Lucky could feel the sound vibrate through his chest. He knew this time he couldn’t look back. He just had to keep teleporting as fast as his hacks could take him.

_ Three... _

Lucky felt himself becoming wearier with every time he teleported. His heart pounded, his vision blurred, his stomach churned. A side effect of using so many hacks in such a short amount of time.

_ Two... _

But all he hoped was that they would be quick enough to get him out of this alive.

_ One... _

Blue light flashed around the group, and the firewalls flickered back to life behind them. Before it could react, the worm slammed against the barrier with a loud  _ THUNK _ , and let out static roar. It retracted itself back and shook its head several times, its massive red eye blinking. Not a moment later, it huffed, mandibles shifting, and flew off back into the darkness of the Void from where it came.

Everyone let out a sigh of relief. The constant feeling of death breathing down their necks was finally over, a giant weight lifted off their shoulders. Lucky felt his heart start to slow down as he gradually caught his breath, and he wiped a layer of dust off his visor. “Thank goodness…” He muttered to himself, clutching his stomach as he tried to let it settle.

“That was close…” Sakura said, breaking the constant huffs and exhausted coughing. “Is everybody okay…?”

“I’ve seen better days,” Grey groaned and rubbed his shoulder. A large gash could be seen on the shoulder pad of his chestpiece, a few black and blue pixels dotted along the surface.

Coda let out a chuckle as she breathed heavily. “You mean younger days, old man?”

“I’ve been at this longer than you’ve been  _ alive _ .” The medic replied. “I’m not the man I was thirty years ago.”

“You’ve been enlisted for over thirty  _ years _ ?” Sakura asked, sounding genuinely interested. “Shouldn’t you be close to retirement by now?” 

“Two more months,” Grey replied, chuckling a bit. “Then I’m going to be relaxing on a beach somewhere in some deserted World-”

“As much as I would love to talk about retirement plans,” Nightingale’s stern voice cut Grey’s sentence off short. “We need to move before we get noticed by anything. Or anyone.”

Lucky gave a rapid nod and saluted along with several of the other soldiers, his nausea now fading away. “Y-yes ma’am!” He said, following everyone else’s lead. He looked over his shoulder at the rippling bluish-white wall of the World border, and took a deep breath to reassure himself that it would be alright. Closing his eyes, he then hurled himself forward, passing through the border and feeling gravity take hold of him once again as he landed on what he presumed to be the ground. To his surprise, he didn't stumble or fall. Not that he was complaining, of course.

The blonde cracked open his eyes, and the inky darkness of the Void was now replaced with bright colors and light. He stood in a massive field of grass up to his knees, a painted blue sky dotted with clouds up above. There was a soft breeze, making the expansive meadow around him ripple in waves of green. Everything was cast in a warm, gentle glow from the sun above the clouds. 

However, as lovely Lucky thought his surroundings were, he also thought that the view wasn’t enough compensation for him nearly being torn to shreds. Nothing probably would. But it wasn’t like he could exactly leave; the Army gave him a lot of debt to pay, after all.

It was the sound of feet planting on the ground behind him that made him turn around. Not too surprisingly, it was the rest of the byte, sticking out against the gentle landscape with their bold colored armor and artillery. 

Coda pushed a button on the side of her helmet, and the glass visor retracted itself to reveal her face. She took a deep breath in, and sighed in relief. "Finally, fresh air…"

Many others followed suit, including Lucky, either taking off their helmets completely or retracting the glass visors to allow them to take in the warm summer air. Even Nightingale had taken off her helmet, letting her midnight curls spring outward.

A minute of silence passed upon the group of soldiers as they all took the scenery in. Nothing but the summer wind and the distant chirping of birds could be heard. If only every day could be this calm, this serene...

But of course, the moment had to come to an end at some point. In this case, it ended with Nightingale breaking the silence. “Alright, get with your partners!” She barked out an order, slipping her helmet back onto her head. “Then head off towards your quadrinths!”

As soon as the sniper made her command, everyone broke away and paired with each other. Sakura with Coda, Seth with Nix, Nightingale with Grey. Which left Lucky with Jazz, and he was more than happy. The thought of being paired with almost anyone else (spare for Sakura and possibly Nix) made him feel uneasy.

At least he was going to have his brother by his side.

~~~~~

“How long have we been moving…?” Lucky asked Jazz, letting out a small groan in pain. His feet were killing him, hurting more with every step he made.

Jazz looked down at his brother as they walked through the dense woods. “About an hour.” He raised an eyebrow after a moment. “You tired of moving already?”

The blonde groaned again. “W-we nearly got eaten by a worm four times the size of an Ender Dragon…” He said. “And I’m not used to going in the field. Of course I’m tired.”

His brother let out a chuckle. “Fair enough.” He replied. A moment of silence ensued, before he spoke again. “You did good back there, by the way. With taking down the firewalls.”

Lucky felt his cheeks flush red at the compliment. No matter how many times his brother gave him any sort of praise, his face would practically turn into a cherry. “Y-you think so, Jazz…?” He asked.

Jazz smiled. “I know so, dude.” He assured, setting a hand on his shoulder. “And so do you. And the people that don’t think that are idiots, cuz you saved our asses today.”

A shy smile began to gradually form on the blonde’s face at his brother’s words. “Th...thanks.” 

“Anytime, Lucky.” There was another moment of quiet between the two brothers until Jazz spoke again. “...I’m proud of you, you know that right?”

Lucky blinked and stopped in his tracks. “Wait, what…?” His eyes widened as he looked up at his brother. “You’re...you’re proud of-”

"This is Bloom looking for Nightingale. Over." Sakura's voice crackled through the com, rudely interrupting the heartfelt conversation between the two brothers. 

A moment later, Nightingale's voice sounded as a reply. "Hear you loud and clear, Bloom." She said. "State your message. Over."

"Tiny Dancer and I have found signs of player activity in the south eastern quadrant," Sakura answered back. "And it appears to be recent. Should I send you all the coordinates? Over."

The sniper’s reply was almost instantaneous. “Yes, Bloom. Send them right away.” She ordered. “Everyone else, once you get their location, head there immediately. No stops. Nightingale, over and out.”

As the message ended and the coordinates sent through, Jazz glanced over at Lucky. “Well… time to go, I guess.” The corners of his mouth turned down into a slight frown for a moment, only to disappear as quickly as it came. “You got the coords?”

The younger of the two brothers glanced down at his communicator. “Y-yeah, I got them.” He said. “S-see you there.” He gave his brother a quick smile, before he closed his eyes and felt his stomach churned as he teleported. Once he opened his eyes, he saw everybody else there with him, including Jazz. He then shifted his eyes from them to his surroundings, and saw that he was in some sort of small town.

Well, more like a compound, the more he looked at it. But what it lacked in size it made up for in both security and class. Massive walls of wood and stone bricks stretched high above the group of eight and the buildings inside, making it very apparent that the stronghold was very defensible against most outsiders.

Emphasis on most, of course.

Lucky soon heard Grey speak up. "So should we try and lock this place down? Secure the perimeter?" He asked Nightingale, catching her attention.

The taller woman nodded. "Yes, we are," She answered. "And it can be safe to assume that if we find anyone, we'll be able to handle them." She shifted her one-eyed gaze around, before it landed on a stone building secured with a set of iron doors. "Now, follow me."

Being led by the famous sniper, everyone had their weapons equipped, save for Sakura, who had by this point exited her R.O.S.A. and compressed it back into its cubic form. Even Lucky had his grip on his knife for a moment, but soon put it away.

Nightingale then stepped up to the doors, but as she grasped the handle and tried to turn it, it refused to move. "Hmm?" She shook the lock a bit more, only to soon turn to Sakura. "It's locked… you have a lockpick?"

The mechanic bit her lip. "No ma'am…" She started, but she stepped up to the iron barrier anyway. "I can try to unlock it though." Pulling out a screwdriver from her tool belt and a small bobby pin from her hair, she knelt down to the lock and began to work.

But after several moments of jiggling the lock, breaking several pins, and nearly breaking the handle off the door, the brunette sighed in defeat. "It's not budging…" She said, standing up. "We're going to need a key."

Coda then spoke up and stepped towards the door, cracking her neck. “Don’t worry, I got one already.” As Sakura blinked in confusion and opened her mouth to ask what she meant, the creeper swiftly slammed her boot against the iron barrier with a massive  _ BANG _ . The instant her foot collided with the metal, the door flew right off its hinges and skidded along the floor in a trail of sparks.

Lucky nearly shrieked at the loud noise, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment and clapping his hands over his ears. He hated that his ears were so sensitive to sound. Maybe it was all of that time spent in his control room at the Hive…

But no matter what it was, he knew he had to brush it off and keep going.

And that’s exactly what he did. He followed behind the group as everyone walked in single file, before making their way down a flight of stairs, and being greeted with a series of winding hallways. What was that place? A bunker of some sort? Lucky couldn’t tell. But with every footstep that sounded through the air, he became more and more certain that-

“Hello?”

Immediately, Lucky felt the hairs on the back of his neck raise. The echoing voice wasn’t one that he recognized. It had to be one of the World’s W.E.S. residents. But how had they found the byte already? Was it just blind chance? No matter what it was, he panicked out of instinct, and dashed into a nearby room, everybody else soon following.

The blonde darted his eyes around the dark room as he pressed himself against one of the walls. Countless boxes and crates were stacked among each other, some of their contents spilling out onto the tile floor. Books, picture frames, clothes. He even thought he saw something that looked like a drone sticking out of one of the containers. Perhaps the bunker was some sort of storage area. The W.E.S. employees could have possibly brought some of their own personal belongings to the World.

But he was shifted back to the present once he heard the voice again. "Doc? Is that you?" Footsteps then sounded, getting closer by the second. Lucky flattened himself further against the wall, eyes on the door to the hallway. He hesitantly reached for the knife on his belt, and held it close to his chest. He could do this...

Hopefully.

He glanced over at Nightingale, who had her rifle grasped in both hands. Her one-eyed gaze was fixed on the door, just like his was, but hers was much more calm, collected. And once that iron door opened and someone entered the room, she immediately knocked them to the ground and pointed the gun at their chest.

“GAAHH!!” The person who entered had let out a shriek as he hit the floor, before his eyes filled with fear as he saw all eight hackers before him. “Wh-what…? Wh-who are you?!” The brunette scrambled further back against the tiles beneath him, desperate to get away from the group of eight as they stalked closer. "P-please, I don't have anything…!" He begged.

“We don’t want money, kid,” Grey stated, pulling his pistol from his holster. “Just stay calm and-”

“Get away from me!” The green-eyed man attempted to fumble to his feet. “I-” Just as he was about to try and dash off, Nightingale suddenly teleported before him and jammed the barrel of her sniper rifle against his forehead. “GAAH!!”

The woman pressed her rifle’s barrel further against the man’s temple as he shrieked. "I would advise against trying to run." She stated, her voice cold like ice. “Understand?”

The brunette’s figure shook violently, his green eyes filled with fear as they were focused on the gun against his head. “Y-yes…!” He squeaked, trying to press himself further against the wall.

“Good.” She removed her rifle from his forehead, making him sigh in relief. “You’re going to tell us what we need, and you just might make it out alive.”

The man blinked, but he quickly nodded. “Y-yes, of course!” He agreed. “Wh-what do you want to know?”

The ebony woman kept her gaze locked with his. “First off… what’s your name?”

The hostage immediately answered. “Scar…! G-GoodTimesWithScar!”

“Scar, you say?” She removed her focus off of him and shifted it over to Lucky. “Lucky, check it against the list you made.”

Lucky nodded and pulled up his keyboard and holographic monitor with the photographs he compiled earlier. “Yes ma’am.” He plugged in the name into a search bar above the collage, pressed one final button, and then one of the images expanded to show who it was in greater detail. And sure enough, it was the same man cowering against the wall. “Yup, he’s telling the truth, ma’am. GoodTimesWithScar, famous builder turned full time W.E.S. employee.” 

Scar's eyes widened in confusion as his personal information was read off. "H...how did you…?" His sentence trailed off as a small  _ ding _ sounded in the air, followed by a repeated buzzing.

Most members of the byte instinctively lifted their wrists to check their communicators, including Lucky, but nothing was showing up on any of the screens. The only one who didn’t move was Nix, and he had his dark brown gaze set on Scar.

"...wait, what's the quiet kid staring at?" Coda asked after a moment of confusion. Lucky shifted his focus back to the hostage, and then noticed what the silent medic was looking at. On Scar's wrist, a communicator was lit up and buzzing, signifying that someone was calling him.

Immediately, Lucky felt a sickening sense of dread in his chest. If Scar had a communicator, it meant that everyone in that World likely did. And more often than not, they had tracking systems built into their hardware, including an emergency feature that sent out an alarm to all other connected devices, notifying that somebody needed assistance ASAP. Plus, with somebody calling him, he could alert the others by answering and begging for help.

Apparently, Sakura had the same idea; get the communicator away from the hostage. Right before Lucky could say something, the brunette sprung into action and reached her cybernetic arm out and flicked her hand upwards. The device on Scar’s wrist then snapped off and flew straight into the mechanic’s palm.

"H-hey…!" Scar tried to lunge for his wrist com, but soon had the barrel of Jazz's combat shotgun lazily pointed at his head.

"Just make this easy so I don't have to scrub your brains off the wall," The soldier stated, yawning a bit. Lucky’s stomach churned a bit at his brother’s words. "Blood stains are tough to clean up…" 

The brunette’s green eyes widened, and he shrunk back his arm to hug himself. He tried to make a response, but could only let out a terrified squeak.

“Jazz!” Sakura stated, crossing her arms. “You’re scaring him!”

“That’s the point,” Jazz replied. “We can’t have this guy blow our cover.”

“I get that, but we don’t have to threaten him with his life-”

“Hey,” Nightingale interrupted the two and grasped their attention. “Another time, you two.”

Sakura looked at the ground in shame. “Yes ma’am…” She said.

Lucky’s brother soon followed. “Yes ma’am. It won’t happen again.”

“It better not,” Nightingale’s response made Lucky uneasy, and even more so when she shifted her raven gaze to him. “Now Lucky, you can create anti-teleportation restraints, I presume?”

The blonde gulped and nodded. “Y-yes ma’am…” He answered, feeling himself start to shake from anxiousness.

“Excellent.” The ebony woman gestured to Scar, who was still shivering in fear against the wall. “Put a pair of handcuffs on him. Make sure he can’t get out.”

Lucky nodded another time. “O-of course, ma’am!” He then held out his hand, and before his eyes, a glowing blue pair of translucent handcuffs pixelated in a matter of moments. With his new restraints in hand, he then knelt down, grasped the brunette’s arms and tightly snapped the cuffs around his wrists. 

“O-ow!!” Scar gasped out in pain. “Th-they’re too tight!”

Seth then stepped closer to the hostage. “That’s sort of the point.” He stated, before locking his gaze to Scar’s. “Now, hold still for me.”

The brunette blinked, confused. “Hold still-”

Scar's face paled in horror as he saw Seth's figure and features suddenly begin to shift and change before him. His fair skin tanned and freckled, his long red hair became brown and short, his eyes went from a striking grey to a soft green. Even his armor shifted into a brown jacket, pants and hat, and his tall figure shrunk down into one of the same size and stature as Scar's.

In fact, he looked  _ exactly _ like Scar. A perfect carbon copy. Not a single feature or mark or scar was out of place, except for Seth's signature sly grin, making the innocent appearance much more sinister and malicious.

"There we are," Seth said, and showing to the group that his voice had changed as well. It was now slightly higher pitched, and much less formal than it was just moments before. Scar's voice. “Now, let’s call that friend back, shall we?” He turned to look down at Lucky. “You able to access it?”

The blonde nodded. “Y-Yeah. Just one moment,” He shifted his blue gaze to Scar’s communicator, and tapped the screen a couple times. To his surprise, there was no password required to gain entry into the device; he only needed to swipe left on the screen to open the main menu, its background of an adorable gray and white cat with a red collar wrapped around its neck. 

But as much as Lucky wanted to obsess over how cute the feline looked, he had a job to do. He darted his eyes around the screen, before landing on an icon of a phone. A single red dot blinking on one of its corners, signifying a missed call. Once he clicked on the image, a long list of previous calls made or received on the communicator appeared, with the latest being from a contact listed as ‘Doc’.

Doc. That name immediately rang a bell in Lucky’s mind. Doc was the name of the military scientist turned cyborg after getting blown up by one of his experiments. And from what he remembered from his profile picture, the creeper appeared extremely intimidating. All that he hoped as he pressed the button to return the call and handed the device over to Seth was that Doc didn’t suspect any foul play.

“Hello? Scar?” A deep, accented voice sounded from the communicator. “You there? I’ve called you twice…”

“Yeah, I’m here,” Seth spoke back, impersonating the handcuffed hostage perfectly. “Just got caught up with something.”

Doc chuckled, making Lucky feel more at ease at how it was all going smoothly. “Jellie again?” He asked. “What did she do this time?”

The soldier gave a chuckle in return. “She stole my hat and ran off.”

“Again?” The creeper asked, laughing. “It’s like she tries to hoard things, I swear…” After a moment, he then cleared his throat. “Anyway, I wanted to call to ask if you were still up for helping me, Impulse, and Stress out with the boxes down in the storage bunker. There’s still a bunch of equipment that needs to be sorted out.”

Lucky blinked at two things; one, the last two people mentioned, and two, the location of where they planned to meet up. Stress and Impulse? They had to be some of the other W.E.S. members stationed in the World. In terms of the meeting place… where they were seemed like the place. And he didn’t know if having all three people come at once was the safest option.

But before he could say anything, Seth replied to Doc with a wide grin. “Yes, of course.”

“Alright!” Doc said to his ‘friend’. “I’m on my way right now, so I should be there soon. Stress and Impulse are right behind me.”

The imposter grinned even wider at his success. “I look forward to it. See you in a bit.”

“See you, man.” 

The communicator then let out a  _ beep _ , signifying that the call was over. Seth handed the device back to Lucky and turned to grin at Scar. “Well then…” He tipped his new hat in the hostage’s direction. “I suppose I have a friend or two to meet up with, hmm?”

All Scar could manage to do was let out shocked squeaks and sounds as he tried to come up with a response. “P-please don’t do this…” He begged, his eyes becoming more fearful as his double turned around and started walking out of the room. “Please, don’t…!”

Sakura stepped closer to the brunette and knelt down a bit, a soft smile on her face. “Don’t worry,” She started, resting a hand on his shoulder. “As long as you and your friends cooperate, you’re all going to be okay!”

Lucky gazed back at the disguised Seth making his exit. Although he knew it was probably just him being anxious, he had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. A feeling that something wasn’t going to turn out so well…

~~~~~

“...geez, when’ll he be back?” Coda let out an agitated huff, throwing her arms up in the air.

“Coda,” Grey started, pinching the bridge of his nose. “It hasn’t even been twenty minutes...”

“It shouldn’t take  _ this _ long to just bring a scientist down here!” She retorted, gritting her teeth at her former mentor.

Lucky looked past his holographic screens as he was sitting in a corner of the box-littered room. As terrified as he was of the creeper, she had a decent point. Twenty minutes  _ was _ a bit long… maybe too long.

However, not a moment later, the blonde could hear voices echo throughout the halls of the bunker. And it wasn’t anybody else there. “W-wait…!” He whisper-yelled, in an attempt to get everyone to fall silent. “I think he’s back!”

He tried to listen closer to the voices bouncing off the stone walls as he edged closer to the door to the room. Sure enough, he could hear Doc’s voice and Scar’s (or technically in this case, Seth), and he sighed in relief. Everything was going to plan!

Lucky shifted his gaze around the room at every other group member. Jazz, Nightingale, and Coda had their weapons drawn, poised and ready to pounce. Nix, Sakura, and Grey, however, got behind some of the stray boxes, ready to duck behind them just in case they needed cover. He soon realized that he was the only one besides the real Scar that was out in the open. Not wanting to be caught in any potential crossfire, he then scrambled behind a crate, only poking his head out from behind the container.

“So this is where the rest of the supplies should be?” Doc’s voice could be heard clearly now, his footsteps approaching.

“Yes, I’m pretty certain.” Seth replied, before his disguised figure could be seen through the small windows in the iron door. “Just in here…” The metal door then creaked open, and the imposter walked inside, followed by the cyborg, who was a  _ lot _ taller than Lucky expected. Doc appeared to be almost a head taller than him! But the blonde soon shook the thought away as he realized that the creeper could see every single soldier eyeing him down.

Doc’s functional eye widened in confusion as he saw the seven hackers in the room, a terrified Scar handcuffed among them. “Wait, Scar? What the hell-”

But before Doc could finish, he was slammed up against the wall by Seth, who's disguise had disappeared. The hacker grasped his natural arm and roughly twisted it behind his back, a sickening  _ crack _ sounding as a result.

Lucky flinched at the massive scream of pain that then came from the scientist and the cry of concern that sounded from Scar. He could never get used to that part. No matter how many missions he was sent out on, no matter how much he tried to accept that it wouldn’t change, he always cowered in fear as saw soldiers hack and slash and pulverize the enemy without mercy. All he was proud of was the fact that it wasn’t him at the end of their gun barrels and steel blades.

Coda groaned in annoyance, despite the anguished cries that came from Doc. “Synth, we’re supposed to take  _ care _ of the merchandise. Bruisin’ ain’t good.”

The redhead shoved the cyborg onto the ground next to Scar, where he continued to writhe in agony from his broken limb. “He’ll live.” He assured.

Lucky blinked at what Coda had called Seth. Synth? Was that his name? The blonde’s face began to glow red, embarrassed at himself.

“Doc!” Scar cried out as the creeper collapsed to the floor. “Doc, are you okay?!”

Doc huffed in pain, clutching his natural arm with his cybernetic one. “He broke my damn arm…” He said through gritted teeth, before shifting a hateful gaze up to who he thought was the real Scar he knew. “Who are you?! What do you people want?!”

Synth looked back down at the creeper, his grey eyes unwavering. “What do we want?” He repeated the question, and knelt a bit closer to the floor. “What we want is for you and your colleagues to cooperate. If you all do… you live. And if you don’t… well, we wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise, now would we?” A wide, almost malicious grin crept onto the man’s lips.

The cyborg’s natural eye widened, before his expression turned to one of anger and fury, and he tried to prop himself up despite his injury. “If you hurt any of them, I swear I will-”

“D-Doc?!”

The voice of an unknown woman sounded out in the room. Lucky whipped his head around, and he saw two terrified people standing in the doorway. One was a short woman with big brown eyes and brown hair, donning a pink cardigan. It could easily be assumed she was the one who cried out. The other person was a man with dark brown hair and eyes, wearing a black t-shirt and cargo shorts. His face was so pale with horror that Lucky was surprised he was even standing.

Out of the corner of his eye, the short blonde saw Coda whip out a pistol and point it at the pair of brunettes. “If you so much as twitch, I’ll put a bullet between your eyes.” She stated, before stalking towards them and yanking both of them by their shirts through the doorway. “Now, c’mere!”

The woman’s eyes widened in fright at the sight of the gun, and she let out a fearful shriek as she was dragged across the floor. “W-wait, pleas-” Her sentence was cut off as she and the man were thrown to the cold tile floor next to Doc and Scar. “GAH!”

“Stress, Impulse!!” Doc cried out for the two people now beside him. He tried to reach out for the man, but gasped in pain as he moved his broken arm.

“Doc, Scar, what’s going on?!” The man asked, sounding terrified and desperate for an answer. His eyes darted around to every hacker in the room. “Who are they?!”

“We don’t know, Impulse!!” Scar struggled against his handcuffs. 

Lucky’s eyes were wide as he watched all of their panic unfold, and they widened even more as he saw everyone else’s expressions. Almost everyone’s face was completely blank, nearly void of any reaction to what they were witnessing. Was seeing horror and fear something to be expected while out in the field?

“Lucky,” Nightingale’s cold voice made Lucky snap out of his thoughts. “Cuff them, would you?”

The blonde gave a nervous nod and saluted. “Y-yes, ma’am!” He formed another three pairs of the translucent shackles in his hands, before going up to the three new hostages to restrain them. The woman (presumably Stress) and Impulse were easy enough to cuff; they were so scared of setting anyone off that they let even the weakest one move them around however ne needed them to.

Doc, however, was a bit more difficult. Even with his broken arm, he still tried to fight back, struggling against Lucky’s grip. “We have people that will be looking for us!” He said as the blonde finally managed to restrain him. “They’ll find you all and have you arrested!”

Coda let out an amused snort at Doc’s statement. “Arrested?” She asked through her laughter. “How? You guys don’t even have respawn yet! Let alone having contact with the authorities; that’ll be  _ months _ away!” She sat on the floor next to him as he struggled against his cuffs. “Which leaves us all alone with you guys…” Her eyes then landed on Stress, who was curled up into a ball, too scared to make a move.

“Oh hello…” The creeper grinned slyly and leaned closer to Stress' face. "You're a cute one, arentcha?~" She purred, slowly twirling the barrel of her gun through the woman's short brown locks. The hostage froze at Coda's touch, and she let out shaky, terrified breaths.

“Leave her alone!” Doc growled, struggling against his handcuffs.

Coda turned to the scientist and stuck out her bottom lip, tilting her head to the side. "Aww, but I don’t want to!" She whined, before giving him a grin and laughing. “Besides…” She then leaned forward towards him and traced the barrel of her pistol along his cheek. “If you try, I can just rip off your other arm. Matching set sounds nice, dunnit?"

Lucky felt his stomach twist at her words. He wondered how Nightingale (or anyone, for that matter) wasn’t disturbed at the creeper’s intimidating behavior. But as far as he knew, she was pretty good at what she did… maybe she got a bit of a free pass.

“Alright, that’s enough,” The blonde was proven wrong as Nightingale had grabbed Coda’s shoulder and ripped her off the ground to face her. “Taunting them isn’t going to do anything good.”

Coda crossed her arms in defiance. “Fine… whatever you say…” She leaned in close to her superior’s face. “Boss.” Her final word dripped with venom, before she wiggled out of the woman’s grip and walked calmly to the other side of the room.

The sniper gave the creeper a hard glare, before pinching the bridge of her nose and sighing. It was obvious to Lucky that her patience was wearing thin. “Jazz, Sakura, Lucky,” She stated after a moment of apparent frustration. “Head outside and stay on guard. Keep an eye out for any others that might wander into the bunker. Understood?”

Lucky gave a nod and saluted. “Y-yes ma’am…!” He stood up and scurried out the door to the room, following his brother and Sakura down the winding hallways.

After a minute of their footsteps being the only sound, Lucky wasn’t surprised when Jazz pulled out his game from his back pocket and began to play. Though he didn’t exactly mind, Sakura spoke up. “Maybe you shouldn’t have that out while we’re on duty…” She said, a worried tone to her voice.

Jazz kept his gaze on the device in his hands as he walked. “Sakura, I’ll be fine. And besides, nobody’s here.”

Sakura frowned, obviously becoming more concerned. “Jazz…!” She stated, borderline begged. “Please, just put it away!”

The soldier didn't listen. "I told you, we’ll be alright," He assured. "It's not like we're going to get caught-"

Jazz's sentence was suddenly cut short by a large crossbow bolt zooming right past his younger brother, before ripping through the device in his hands and shattering it to pieces.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also available on Wattpad and Tumblr!

**Angel**

It was the sound of screams and loud gunfire that made Angel whip her head away from the hostages. 

“What in the name of...?!” She sprung up from the crate she was sitting on. Her long, powerful rifle was gripped tightly in both her hands, ready to be fired at any moment.

Many others in the room had the same reaction. Most of the captives let out some sort of shriek, huddling closer to each other out of fear. The hackers let out surprised exclamations, before following Angel’s lead and equipping their weapons.

“The hell was that?!” Grey demanded, pistol in hand and pointed at the door.

“Whatycha think they were, dumbass?!” Coda sassed her former mentor back, grasping her own battle axe firmly. “They’re fucking shotgun blasts!”

“You think those three got caught?” Synth asked, his assault rifle in hand.

“No shit, sherlock!”

But as everyone was silent and continued to yell, Angel was quiet. Quiet out of the guilt that something terrible might have been happening to the soldiers under her command. She _ had _ to do something. 

“Stay here.” She ordered, dashing towards the iron doors. “I’m going to find them. Do _ not _ let hostages escape.” Before anyone could say anything, she burst through the doors and slammed them behind her as she entered the hallway. 

She sent them out there on their own. And she was going to get every single one of them back.

Angel activated a flight hack and sprung off the floor to hover, before racing down the winding corridors. Her gaze was locked straight forward as she sped through the air. She zipped around tight turns, dodged massive crates that obstructed her flight path, narrowly avoided running into countless walls-

The gunshots suddenly ceased, filling the halls with a dreadful silence. A part of her mind raced and buzzed. Were her soldiers okay? Had they fended the threat off? Had they failed?

And then she made one final twist around a corner and came upon the sight she was more than happy to see. Sakura and Lucky were both being shielded behind Jazz, who had his shotgun pointed down a separate corridor branching off of the main hallway.

The mechanic soon caught sight of her, and her brown eyes widened. “Ma’am!” She called out and waved her mechanical arm frantically. “You came!”

Angel let out an internal sigh of relief at the sight of the trio. Every single one was alive. “You three alright?” She questioned, glancing around at the three soldiers as she reached them and lowered herself to the floor.

Jazz groaned and rolled his shoulder. “Yes, ma’am… we’re fine,” He gestured to a spot a couple meters away, down the smaller hallway. “Can’t say the same for him though.”

The taller woman glanced over to where her colleague was pointing. Sprawled out face down on the floor was what appeared to be a humanoid robot, a shattered crossbow and bolts nearby. Several large dents ran up and down the droid’s back and legs. They could easily be presumed to be from Jazz’s shotgun blasts, due to the fact that dozens of the pellets were embedded into the steel. It could also be assumed that the robot was no longer functional, for it was still and silent.

However, as Angel approached and bent her knees to get a closer look, the ‘robot’ let out a too human groan of pain and shifted itself. Enough so to where its face could be seen. And the sniper immediately recognized who it was, and he wasn’t any robot. Cyborg, maybe, but no robot. It was Biffa2001, one of HermitCraft’s residents Lucky had marked as potentially hostile, due to his former military status. A large bruise was beginning to form on his cheek, presumably from him collapsing to the ground.

She could see Sakura stepping up to her out of the corner of her eye. “And ma’am, there’s something important that-”

“What’s important is that you three are unharmed.” Angel answered, standing back up to her full height. She glanced back to the three soldiers. “Now, we need to-”

“But ma’am, he called for backup!” Sakura stated, cutting off Angel. “Forgive me for interrupting, but our cover’s been compromised!”

The sniper stopped at the mechanic’s words. Compromised? He managed to contact the others? "What? Are you positive?" She asked, her tone beginning to reveal some anger within her.

The brunette gave a hasty nod. "Yes, ma'am!" She quickly answered, obviously panicked. "They said they were on their way!"

“Now?”

“_ Now! _”

Angel felt the annoyance bubbling in her chest transform into extreme frustration. First it was finding out there were potential threats in the World, then it was nearly getting torn to shreds by a massive worm, and now it was having their locations and cover being blown! Everything just _ had _ to go wrong that day, didn’t it? What was going to be next?

But instead of expressing her internal fury, she kept it hidden and took a deep breath. “Alright… listen up. All of you.” She spoke loud enough to get everyone’s eyes on her. “We need to get back to the rest of the team and make a plan. _ Fast _.” Just as she pivoted and was about to teleport, she turned to look over at Jazz, before gesturing to Biffa on the floor. “Oh, and bring him with us. We’re putting him with the others.”

Jazz gave Angel an immediate nod, before bending his knees to pick up the unconscious cyborg in his arms. When he stood up once again, however, he wobbled a bit and tried to stabilize himself. “Holy shit, this guy’s heavy!”

“H-He’s mostly metal…” Lucky said. “W-What’d you expect...?” 

“Lucky, Jazz. _ Now _.” The sniper repeated her command, giving an icy glare to the two brothers.

The soldiers both fell silent, but each gave her a nod. Now satisfied, Angel turned around and quickly teleported back to the room where her byte and the hostages resided, Sakura, Jazz, Lucky, and Biffa right behind her. Once she opened the door and walked inside, however, she was greeted with an… interesting sight.

Everybody was still there, which was a relief, but now several boxes were either opened or toppled over, their contents spilling out onto the floor. In the center of it all, Coda was laughing as she strapped a mask of a chicken face over her head, before putting on a brown hat and trenchcoat over her armor. Several other costumes and outfits were strewn about, from a tattered black robe paired with a plastic scythe to a blue captain’s uniform and hat. Of _ course _ she was going through the crates… 

“Hold on, Synth, how’s this one?” The creeper asked, looking over at her fellow Infantry soldier. She appeared to not have noticed Angel enter, either. “Whatcha think this one’s supposed to be?” She struck a pose, tipping her newly acquired fedora at the hostages, despite their obvious mix of confusion and fear. 

Synth chuckled. “A detective, maybe?” He was about to say something else, but his grey eyes landed on Angel. “...I think you have a new audience.”

“Huh?” Coda then turned around, and came face to face with the sniper. “Holy shit-”

Angel shoved Coda aside as she led Jazz, Lucky, and Sakura back into the storage room. “No time to talk.” She said quickly, before snatching a stray iron rod from one of the stray crates. “We’re getting out of here, our cover has been blown.”

Coda lifted the chicken mask off her face to show her confused expression. “Wait, what? We’ve been found?!"

“Did I fucking _ stutter _?”

The whole room fell deadly silent at Angel’s curse. She knew she had to just try and make it a bit longer without her patience snapping in two. She took a breath, and spoke again.“Yes, our location’s been compromised. We need to move.” Her gaze then landed on Jazz, who was still carrying the unconscious Biffa. “And remember, leave him here. He’s not getting up anytime soon.”

The soldier nodded at his leader’s order, and set Biffa on the ground next to the other hostages, who were all wide eyed and panicked. “Don’t worry… he’ll live.” Jazz said calmly. “...probably.”

One of the hostages, Stress, let out a shaky gasp. “P-Probably…?” She asked.

Angel glanced down at the cyborg. He _ was _ in a pretty critical condition… he took several shotgun hits, after all. Even though his armor and cybernetics shield him from most of the damage, perhaps healing him would be a wise choice. “Nix,” She stated out, turning over to the young medic next to Grey. “Heal him up, would you? We can’t have a recruit dying on us.”

The teen’s expression was one of surprise, but he gave the woman a nod and walked over to the group of five captives. Most scooted away as he approached, but one tried to get in between him and Biffa, despite his arm being broken. Doc.

“Get away from him!” He growled, hissing in pain from his severe wound. “You think we’re just going to trust you?! After what you’ve done?!”

Angel frowned more, and took a slow step towards him. “If we wanted to kill you all...we would have done so already.”

Doc was about to speak again, but somebody else beat him to it. “Doc, please…!” Scar cried out, his green eyes filled with desperation and worry. “She’s right! If we don’t get Biffa some help, he’s not gonna make it!” 

The scientist fell silent. He looked down at his friend on the floor, closed his mismatched eyes, and let out a sigh. “Fine.” He answered reluctantly. “But if you try and do something other than helping, I _ will _ send a sword through your gut-”

“I rather doubt that,” Angel replied, taking another stride closer, close enough to where she was towering over his restrained figure. “Unless you can somehow break out of those cuffs… you’re not going anywhere.” She glanced down back at Nix. “You can continue, Nix.”

Nix looked up at his superior and gave her a nod. Kneeling down next to Biffa, he then held his hand outwards, and a small mass of glitching pink and red pixels began to form. He carefully pressed his palm against the cyborg’s forehead, and the wounds on his head and body began to fade away. After mere seconds, only a few small scars remained. Even the dents in his plated armor had disappeared.

Grey let out a chuckle. “I told you he was good for his age, eh?”

Angel gave a nod. “I will admit… I’m impressed.” She replied. The boy was quite talented, given he was fresh out of his training. “But we don’t have time to praise. We need to move. Now.” She tilted her head towards the door.

Many of the hackers nodded or saluted, and began to walk out of the room, Angel leading them. But as Coda shut the door behind them all, the sniper remembered something; the rusting iron bar in her hand. “Oh, and Coda?”

The creeper snapped her dark gaze to meet the sniper’s. “Hmm?” She raised an eyebrow, before blinking in realization of who had said her name. “M-ma’am?”

Unfazed by (and somewhat accustomed to) her flustered reaction, Angel then tossed the metal rod in her hands over to the soldier. “Make sure they don’t get out.”

Coda caught the iron bar with ease, and after a mere moment of her obvious confusion, a wide grin spread across her scaled face. "Yes ma'am." She answered and gave a salute. Cracking her knuckles, she immediately followed the order and, grasping the bar, twisted it with ease around the door handles, barricading the four hostages inside.

‘H-hey…!” One of the captives, Impulse, cried out as he saw the creeper render the only exit useless. He stumbled to his feet and sped towards the door, trying not to trip from the lack of balance due to his hands being cuffed behind his back. “Don’t lock us in here!”

“Too bad,” Coda replied, before letting out a small chuckle. “Can’t have the merchandise wandering ‘round, y’hear? ”

Impulse ignored the snide remark. “Just let us go!!” He begged, brown eyes pleading. “We’ll give you anything you want… just don’t hurt anybody else, please!”

Angel locked her single eye on the man, gaze cold and empty. “Like we told you all before…” She started, leaning closer to the small window in the door. “If you cooperate, you live. And if you don’t, you die. It’s your choice.” She pulled away and waved her hand to signal that it was time to go. “Now, move out everyone.”

“No, wait,_ please _…! Hey!”

She led the group of hackers down the winding hallways, ignoring the continuous cries and pleads from the hostages. Over sixteen years of experience helped quite a bit with that. It may have been such a horrid sound, but the further they went, the more it faded into undetectable echoes.

Soon, everyone was at the bottom of the staircase leading up to the bunker’s exit. Unfamiliar voices could be faintly heard from outside. “Remember what I said before!” Angel turned back to face the soldiers under her command. “Capture who you can… take out the rest. We want as many recruits as possible. Am I clear?”

Everyone nodded and gave a salute, a few throwing in a “_ Yes ma’am, _” as a reply. 

“Good.” She then took her helmet and slipped it onto her head. “Now, move out, and keep your head on a swivel.”

She pivoted herself to face the stairs again, before beginning her speedy ascent, her byte in tow. It was time to spread her wings and take to the skies, to live up to her name as a songbird, a nightingale. Her instrument of choice? A thunderous hail of bullets from above.

~~~~~

In just the span of ten minutes, Angel and her team had managed to take down and apprehend nearly a dozen more W.E.S. operatives. Thankfully, not all of them came at the same time. It was more of a slow trickle of people rather than a flood. Although quite a few were injured in some manner, ranging from concussions to full on gunshot wounds, they were easily healed up by either Nix or Grey, before being handcuffed and teleported down into the storage bunker. Things were going much better than expected; Angel predicted that they’d be done with the skirmish in the next fifteen to twenty minutes. Then it was a matter of securing the World and getting it wrapped in the Shadowbyte Army’s clutches.

At that moment, Angel was zooming through the air, peering through the scope of her rifle at two figures down on the ground below. One, a blonde man in a dark grey vest, was running alongside a shorter man with unruly brown hair wearing a dull green hoodie (which she found somewhat odd, given the blazing summer heat). The blonde she didn’t recognize, but the moment the brunette looked over his shoulder and caught sight of her flying, she knew who he was when she saw the cybernetic eye in place of one of his natural ones. Iskall85. Former military sergeant, and lethal in hand to hand combat.

She knew where to spend her next bullet. 

It didn’t faze Angel when Iskall immediately grabbed the unknown blonde’s hand and ran faster across the field. He _ had _ seen her, after all, circling the skies like a hawk searching for prey. But he could only run so fast and so far. And she could take her sweet time, if she wanted… but she wasn’t one for laziness.

So with one pull of her trigger, she fired at the brunette and sent him sprawling onto the dirt. 

The sniper pressed the side of her helmet to activate her earpiece. “This is Nightingale to Patient Zero, Hound, and Profit,” She started, keeping her focus on the two men. Immediately after Iskall fell, the blonde skid to a halt and rushed to his side. “I’ve got another takedown, just south of the compound. One has a gunshot wound to the leg…” She stopped for a moment to take another shot, which sent the blonde man to the ground as well. “The other has one to the shoulder.”

Not a moment later, she heard Grey’s voice crackle over the intercom. “Hear you loud and clear, ma’am,” He answered. “Patient Zero’s on his way now.”  
  
“Good. And Profit?”

Another voice sounded. Lucky’s. “Y-yes ma’am.” He said, almost sounding as if he were caught by surprise. “I-I’m also on my way.”

“Perfect. Now, you know the drill. Restrain them, and once they’ve been healed, take them down to the bunker.”

“O-of course, ma’am!” Lucky replied.

“Excellent,” Angel soon saw two figures appear next to Iskall and the blonde. Lucky and Nix. “I have visual on you and Patient Zero. You have it handled?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Good.” The hacker finally turned her focus away from the two W.E.S. operatives and flew off. “This is Nightingale, over and out.” She darted her gaze over the field, rifle at the ready. If her memory served her correctly, there were only seven more to find and capture.

And one immediately caught her attention. Because they nearly hit Angel in the leg with a crossbow bolt.

Thankfully, Angel had noticed the missile soon enough to teleport out of the way. As she looked at the ground to figure out who had shot it, her eye landed on a young blonde woman, a pair of goggles perched atop her head. A large crossbow was clutched in her hands, and it was lined up at her to take another shot.

Not if her gun had anything to say about it. Before the woman could send another bolt flying, the sniper simply whipped out her rifle and returned fire. A split second later, she saw the crossbow shatter into pieces and scatter onto the dirt.

However, instead of immediately trying to finish the job, Angel stayed put and glanced through her scope. She got a clearer look at her opponent’s face, and she recognized her as the one and only FalseSymmetry. The famous former military commander, showered with praise for her bravery and valour.

Now she _ really _ caught her attention.

The hacker decided to fly closer to the blonde, somewhat curious of what would happen next. As she glided closer to the ground, she saw the woman quickly unsheath an iron sword from her belt.

Vigilant and quick to react. Not bad.

Angel eventually got close enough to False to where she could hear her. She wanted to see if she could continue to fight, see that she was outmatched by a landslide, in terms of weaponry and equipment. Not to mention Angel’s hacks gave her an overwhelming advantage.

“Hello there, Miss Symmetry,” The hacker greeted as she hovered about six meters above the ground. “That was a nice shot you made… especially for how slow crossbow bolts are against guns.”

False gave Angel an angry glare, her iron sword poised. “What do you want?” She wasn’t taking the bait.

The soldier calmly replaced the rifle in her hands with her metal staff. “For you to cooperate.” She stated, allowing herself to descend and gently plant her feet on the grass. “We can do this the easy way, where you surrender peacefully-”

The blonde shook her head and cut her off. “Not a chance.” She pointed her blade at the taller woman. “I’m not just going to give in that easily!”

Angel wasn’t exactly surprised at False’s decision, despite knowing so little about her other than her military experience. She was used to receiving sass and insubordination, anyhow, from allies and enemies alike. She gripped her staff tighter, knowing what was about to happen next. “The hard way it is, then.” 

A moment of tense silence ensued. Neither woman said anything more, neither moved, neither broke eye contact. Only the sounds of other brawls, chaos, and gunfire accompanied them. It was as if time was at a standstill, like the universe had stopped just for that moment…

And then False charged forwards, before slashing her blade.

Angel swiftly dodged the attempted strike with a long stride to the side. A bit of a messy swing, but it could have been worse. She took her own staff and made a low sweep at her opponents ankles. But she was pleasantly surprised when the blonde jumped upwards just as the metal pole was about to knock her off her feet.

False wasn’t half bad. More than that, even. Perhaps she _ would _ make a good soldier in the Army… if she wanted to get out of this alive, that is.

The hacker kept her thoughts to herself, however. She wanted to see what else the former commander could do, to see if her skills from her previous career were still decent. So she took a step back, opening some space between her and her opponent, before teleporting behind her in a flash of pixels and swinging her staff. And the blonde surprised her once more as she spun around and held up her sword to block the blow, causing sparks to shower around the two of them.

_ Now _ things looked promising. Her reflexes were fantastic, she was aware of everything going on around her. It was obvious that her combat abilities weren’t hindered in the slightest. 

But of course, Angel knew that she shouldn’t waste too much time, so she immediately decided to end the brawl and take the upper hand. Before False could react, the hacker lunged back and harshly planted her foot against her chest.

The blonde stumbled back from the force of her kick, giving Angel the opportunity to lunge and make a final swing at her opponent with her staff. A loud _ THWACK _sounded as metal collided with the side of her head, and the woman was knocked completely off her feet, slamming onto the ground unconscious.

Now she knew for certain that False was soldier material. It was only a matter of time until-

“GO LONG, TOOTHPICK!”

Angel’s posture went rigid. It was Coda. What was she doing this time?

She glanced over her shoulder, and saw three people coming her way. One was, of course, Coda, who was running along the ground and looking up at the sky. Grey wasn’t too far behind her, flying and almost struggling to keep up. The third person was a younger man with raven hair and a notably large (almost cartoonish) mustache, who she recognized as the redstone prodigy and multimillionaire, Mumbo Jumbo. But to Angel’s surprise, he was being flung back and forth through the air like a ragdoll, courtesy of Coda using telekinetic hacks.

Why wasn’t she surprised?

Just as the creeper and medic were running past her, Angel spoke angrily. “_ Coda _ !” She ordered, stamping her foot into the earth. “Put him down. _ Now _.”

Coda skidded herself to a halt as she heard her name, just after flinging Mumbo straight upwards into the sky. “Aw, c’mon! It’s fun!” After a moment of her superior’s silence, however, she huffed, sagging her shoulders. “Fine, _ Boss _,” Just as the screaming and falling Mumbo was about to slam into the ground, she then flicked her hand in the air. The young man’s tall and lanky figure immediately slowed down to a halt, leaving him hovering just a meter or two above the dirt, dangling by only one ankle.

“Wha… huh…?” Mumbo cracked open an eye, before patting himself all over. “I’m alive…?” 

“You thought I was gonna kill ya, pipecleaner?” Coda asked, leaning closer to his face.

The ravenhead tried to lean away as she got closer, but only succeeding in making himself sway in midair. “U-uhhh…!”

“Okay, that’s enough, Coda,” Grey stated to the younger soldier, breathing heavily. He had finally managed to catch up to his former pupil. “Just leave the kid alone. We don’t want to traumatize another recruit.”

Mumbo blinked, his already pasty skin becoming paler. “R...recruit…?” He asked, his brown eyes wide with fear. “What are you talking about?”

Coda’s eyes showed a spark of excitement, before she brought him into a headlock with one arm. “Why, you’re comin’ with us, toothpick!” She declared. “You get to be one of us!”

“Only if he accepts,” Angel spoke out, not caring that she sounded impatient. “But if he wants to live, he will have to enlist.”

“Hmm…” Coda leaned closer to Mumbo again, as if inspecting him. “He’s not who I’d pick for soldier material…” She was silent for a moment, only to then shrug and let out a chuckle. “But hey, he’s kinda cute… a bit on the pale’n’lanky side, but cute.” She stretched out a hand to tap him on the nose with her finger. “At the very least, he can be useful in the Engineering Div-”

A loud _ PANG _ sounded, followed by Grey suddenly getting knocked to the ground, out cold. 

“Wh- Grey!” Coda let out a shriek, and the telekinetic hack she was using disappeared with his consciousness. But with how she didn’t even bother to reactivate it to stop Mumbo from falling, it was obvious that she didn't care if he got hurt. She didn’t even say anything as the younger man let out a panicked cry and slammed into the ground with a harsh _ thud _. “What the fuck?!”

Angel jumped in surprise, before whipping out her rifle and locking her gaze on where Grey was just knocked out cold. For a split second, she noticed nothing, but soon saw two unmoving imprints on the grass. Boots.

Her brows furrowed, and she pointed her gun right where she presumed the person would be. “Show yourself _ now _. I know you’re there.” She demanded, continuing to glare daggers off into the seemingly empty air.

For a few seconds, the sniper was faced with nothing but silence. It wasn’t until, out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of Coda roughly pulling Mumbo off the ground that something happened. A male’s panicked voice, slightly muffled.

“Alright, alright! Just don’t hurt him! The potion needs to wear off...”

Angel was pleased with the response. After a moment of shuffling, a figure slowly began to fade into her line of sight. A man slightly taller than her, donning a sleek set of emerald green body armor, along with a grey helmet similar in style to the one she was wearing. In his gloved hands was False’s sword, gripped by the steel blade. He must have used the hilt as a club to knock Grey unconscious. After a split second of thought, she soon recognized him, remembering his face from the lineup of HermitCraft’s members.

Xisumavoid.

“Hey, you!” Coda hissed at the man, and balled up the back of Mumbo’s shirt in her fist. “This your fucking buddy?!” She then whipped out a pistol and jammed it against the side of his head, finger on the trigger.

“O-oh my word…!” Mumbo let out a terrified shriek, and he froze where he stood.

Xisuma’s eyes went large as he saw the gun trained on his colleague, not even focused on Angel anymore. This surprised her. If anything, she presumed he would be more focused on the large rifle aimed right at his own head. “Please, just let him go! All I want to do is talk!”

“Let this pipecleaner go? Fat fucking chance-”

“_ Coda _!”

Angel locked her one eyed gaze with the creeper, glaring daggers. Her patience with her was wearing _ extremely _ thin. “Watch. Your. _ Tongue _.” She growled.

Coda fell silent, before letting out a huff. “Whatever y’say, Boss.”

The sniper sighed, and returned her focus to Xisuma. “We’ll give him to you… but you need to give us something in return.” She gestured to the sword gripped in his hands. “Go on. Toss it over.”

Xisuma’s worried eyes shifted to Mumbo, who was still shaking in fear from the gun against his head. A tense moment of silence passed. But then, without saying a word, he threw the sword on the ground at Coda’s feet.

“Good.” Angel answered, satisfied that _ somebody _ was following her orders. “Now, let him go Coda.” She looked over her shoulder to the soldier.

Coda gave a stiff nod. “Understood.” Removing the pistol from Mumbo’s head, she then shoved him forwards. He cried out and stumbled, but he quickly got to his feet and retreated behind Xisuma.

“X, what are you doing?!” The young man asked his colleague, visibly terrified of the situation. “These guys are dangerous!”

“I know,” Xisuma stated, and, to Angel’s satisfaction, raised his hands up in surrender. “Which is why I need you to get out of here.”

Mumbo blinked. “Wait, what?” He asked. “X, I can’t just leave you-”

The man in green armor snapped his visored gaze to the taller one behind him. “Mumbo, I said get out of here!”

Mumbo tried to speak, but once he glanced over at Angel and Coda again, he stopped himself. He gave Xisuma a terrified expression, as if silently begging him to not make him go.

“You heard’em, toothpick.” Coda growled, slinging her massive axe over her shoulder. “_ Run _. Before we change our minds.”

Angel remained silent, but kept her icy gaze on the young man. After a seemingly long moment, their eyes locked, and once they did, his skin when from already pale to practically white, almost sickly. As if too afraid to see what would happen next, he glanced back at Xisuma with a fearful expression, before he turned and dashed away as fast as his feet could carry him.

The creeper cupped her hands around her mouth as she, Angel, and Xisuma watched Mumbo scamper off. “Run faster, chicken legs!” She called out. “Run like your fucking life depends on it-”

“_ Coda _ .” Angel made a cold, stern warning again. She swore that Coda was practically a _ child _, she was so immature. Of course, she had plenty of experience dealing with both children and disrespectful soldiers, but that creeper was pushing her buttons like she was born to annoy. One minute, she’d be flustered at the mere sight of her, and the next, she’d be so defiant!

Coda fell silent, let out a huff, and crossed her arms. “Aight, Ma,” She groaned in annoyance, making her superior further approach the edge of her patience. Just breathe… 

The sniper locked her sharp gaze with Xisuma’s. “Well, you got your wish. Your friend is gone.” She lowered her rifle slightly. He wasn’t armed anymore, so the possibility of him being a threat wasn’t high. “Now… talk.”

Xisuma was quiet for a moment, before he cleared his throat. “I...I want to make a deal,” He said, hands still in the air. “I don’t want to fight you all… I don’t want anybody else getting hurt.” For a second, his eyes shifted to both Grey and False unconscious on the ground. “J-Just… hear me out. Please.”

Angel raised an eyebrow out of curiosity. A deal? She pursed her lips in thought. It was awfully bold (not to mention odd) of him to first incapacitate one of her soldiers, but then wanting to only negotiate instead of fight. As if he panicked and switched plans as the original was set in motion.

Before she could respond, however, Coda (unsurprisingly) stated her mind. “A deal?” She growled, before pointing to Grey passed out in the dirt. “You think I wanna make a damn fucking _ deal _? After whatchya just did?!”

Xisuma kept his hands up, despite the threatening tone from Coda. "Please, just leave us alone!" He pleaded again. "We can just-”

He was cut off as the creeper swiftly scooped False’s sword from the ground, teleported in front of him, and shoved the iron blade right through his chest.

The man gasped and stumbled forwards the moment Coda pierced the sword through his abdomen, and was knocked back as the sword was drawn out. Dark red blood leaked out of the gaping wound and stained nearly his emerald green armor, before dripping onto the ground below. He coughed and croaked, almost stumbling to the earth. It was obvious that even with immediate medical attention, there was no way he would survive an attack that severe. Guess they were coming home with one less recruit.

But just as Angel was about to scold Coda for the impulsive decision, she immediately noticed something was off. As the staggering man clutched his seemingly fatal injury, the gushing blood suddenly became a mere trickle, and then the gash closed entirely, leaving nothing but a few crimson droplets behind. No average player could heal that quickly, even with the help of potions or any regeneration effect. And there wasn’t any sort of brew or beacon to be seen. Which could only mean one thing...

He was a hacker. And a powerful one, at that. Whether he used extremely effective healing hacks or a god-like invincibility hack, that man knew what he was doing. And it was apparent that he had been using them for a _ long _ time.

“Well then…” Angel then stated to Xisuma, letting a hint of genuine surprise slip into her words. Her grip on her rifle tightened. “Guess we have one of our own, hmm?”

The man in green armor coughed one last time, before clearing his throat. “So what if I’m a hacker? At least I don’t use my powers for my own gain…”

“Y’wanna bet on it?” Coda replied, sword poised and ready to strike once more. 

Xisuma wiped his bloody hand on his leg, leaving a crimson smear on the green plated armor. “I told you, I don’t want to fight!” He declared, holding his hands out and shaking his head. “We can both go our own ways. You leave us alone, and we’ll leave you alone!”

The creeper was silent for a moment, before she suddenly let out a burst of laughter. “Leave ya alone?” She cackled, clutching her stomach. “Holy shit, you’re _ hilarious _ ! You think we’re just gonna fucking _ leave _?”

The man blinked in confusion. It was obvious to Angel that he wasn’t expecting that sort of response. “W-well, yeah… we outnumber you all. There’s twenty two of us and only eight of you! I want to give you a chance to-”

Coda interrupted him with another chuckle. “Y’sure about your math there, buddy?” She taunted, eyes glinting with mischief. “It’s more like seven of you guys now… before y’got here, we’d already taken care of quite a few.”

Angel’s eye snapped to the creeper, her patience finally breaking. She knew that Coda’s impulsivity would get her into trouble. But it was too late to get her out of it now; Xisuma’s gaze had first widened, then filled with horror, and then filled with rage.

“You...you _ what _?”

“You heard me, green bean.” The soldier said. “What’cha gonna do? Cry about it-”

Before she could finish her sentence, Xisuma then lunged at her, planting his fist right into her chest. To both Angel’s amazement and shock, Coda’s figure went flying across the field at the force of the punch, until she tumbled and skidded to a final halt. She didn’t make another move.

That single action let Angel know that this hacker was _ not _ going to surrender willingly. 

“CODA!!”

A louder voice rang out just after Coda landed. Synth. “YOU _ BASTARD _!!” Soon, the Infantry soldier appeared out of the corner of Angel’s eye, sword drawn and ready to slash. For a moment, he glanced over at the woman. “I’ve got this, ma’am! Go get a medic!” 

As much as Angel wanted to stay and help, she knew that Coda needed medical attention immediately. No matter how annoying she thought she was, she wasn’t going to let her die. She wouldn’t break her oath over something as petty as a grudge. So she teleported all the way to where Coda landed and scooped her up in her arms as she activated her earpiece.

“This is Nightingale to Patient Zero!” She called out and began to run away from the fray. “I need a medic, _ STAT _! Tiny Dancer’s in critical condition! I’m just southeast of the compound, hurry-” Her sentence was cut off as she saw two familiar figures in the distance; Lucky and Nix. “Hold on, I have a visual on you and Profit! I’m coming to you, stay put! Over and out!”

Angel activated a teleportation hack as she ran, instantly appearing right next to the two young soldiers. “Quick, we need to find a place to hide!” She ordered, ignoring their startled expressions and reactions to her sudden entrance. Her eye quickly darted around, and settled on a massive boulder near one of the high walls of the compound. That would have to do.

“You two, follow me!” The tall woman ran as fast as she could, before sliding along the ground to get behind the boulder, Nix and Lucky following suit. Even if their sliding was more of a tumble through the dirt. It was better than nothing. She laid Coda on the ground and positioned herself against the sheet of rock so she was closest to the corner, in the most vulnerable spot. She knew that the two other hackers wouldn’t last long if she had either of them take her place.

Lucky slammed his back up against the rockface, his panicked eyes barely visible through his grime-caked visor. “H-h-how is that guy so strong?!” He cried out, his breathing labored. He looked over to Nix as he was trying to heal Coda, but the medic was obviously just as scared as he was; his only response was a quick shrug and a shake of his head. He then shifted his eyes to Angel, desperate for her to answer. “M-ma’am, what are we going to do…?!”

Angel locked her dark eye with the blonde’s. She knew they were all going to die if she kept everyone in that World; she only had one option. “We’re getting the hell out of here, that’s what,” She answered. “That man alone has taken out two of us in less than a minute, and I’m not going to let that number get any higher.” She then pressed a small button on the side of her helmet to activate her earpiece.

"This is Nightingale to Hub, we're taking heavy fire! Requesting an immediate extraction!" The hacker stated out, trying to hear herself over the chaos. "We have a hacker in our target World! A damn good one! We can’t take him!” She quickly peered around the corner to fire another shot, before ducking back behind the safety of the rockface. “I repeat, we need an extraction for Nightingale, Bloom, Riff, Tiny Dancer, Mimic, Patient Zero, Hound, and Profit! Over!"

To her dismay, all that she could hear from her earpiece was static. Her brows furrowed, and she cursed out in extreme frustration. "Damnit, come on!" Her device must have either broken sometime during the battle, or Xisuma cut off all lines of outside inter-World communication. Now she had no way to contact anyone back at the Hive. How was she going to get her and every other member of her squadron back home in one piece?

Angel let out in exasperated groan and leaned her head back against the boulder. She _ had _ to think of something. But her options were few and far between; taking out every other member wouldn’t matter, for Xisuma was the real threat. The idea of getting everyone past the World border and back out into the Void sounded alright, but then she remembered the massive worm that could possibly still be wandering about. Even the most straightforward solution, killing Xisuma, was so far fetched that it would take something close to a miracle to have it work.

But the last option was the best way out. And Angel knew she had to take the plunge. 

She took a breath, and opened her eyes to gaze down at Lucky. “Lucky…” She started, voice cold and determined. “Kill the lights. And make it rain. _ Hard _.”

Angel could see the soldier's eyes widen through his filthy visor, but he gave a hasty nod. “Y-yes ma’am…!” His holographic setup appeared, and his fingers flew across his keyboard. “A-and… a-and can I ask why…?”

The sniper shifted her chilling gaze away from the young blonde and up to the clear blue sky. “You’ll see…”

Not a moment later, the bright warmth of the day transformed into the eerie cold of the night as the sun disappeared and the sky went black in the blink of an eye. Dark clouds rain zapped into existence, crackling with thunder and a terrifying amount of lightning. A heavy downpour of rain soon followed, making the ground slippery and the surroundings almost impossible to see through.

The perfect cover.

Angel poked her head around the corner once again, and to her satisfaction, finally caught sight of Xisuma. He was right out in the open, helping Mumbo to his feet. She knew she couldn’t waste this shot. Or several, for that matter. So she came out of her hiding spot, lifted her rifle, aimed through the scope, activated an aimbot hack for good measure…

And fired a single shot, right at his head.

However, to her frustration and dismay, it was as if the hacker knew it was coming from a mile away. He held up his hand, and a translucent blue sphere pixelated around him and Mumbo. The bullets smashed against the forcefield, but couldn’t break through in the slightest. Just as quickly as it appeared, the dome dissipated, and Xisuma flew off up into the sky.

The sniper frowned as she swiftly reloaded her rifle. Xisuma surely was skilled, and not just with hacks. He was hypervigilant, light on his feet, and although his combat could be improved, it was still effective enough to take out several of her colleagues without breaking a sweat.

Angel gritted her teeth, and swiftly sprang herself up as she initiated both a flight hack and an invisibility. She disappeared and sped off into the stormy skies after her target, holstering her rifle. If he could dodge an aimbot assisted bullet, the gun wasn’t going to be of much use. She had to get up close and personal to kill him.

Cold rain pelted against her sleek armor as she soared and closed in on the hacker. And before Xisuma realized who was behind him, the woman used one final boost of speed close the distance between them, followed by her locking her arms around his figure to subdue him.

“Wh- HEY!!” Xisuma cried out, struggling against Angel’s iron grip. “LET GO OF ME!!” He and the woman continued to fly through the pouring rain, each fighting for control. 

A roar of thunder sounded, sending a massive tremor through Angel's body. "There's _ no _ way I'm letting you go." She growled as she deactivated her invisibility to show herself. She faced her opponent, before reaching into her pocket and whipping out a garrote wire. She knew what she had to do. “As good as you are, you’re _ not _ getting out of this alive.” The woman then took the steel wire and quickly wrapped it around Xisuma’s throat, choking him.

But just after the sniper began her attempt at strangling the man, he did something she didn’t expect. Instead of reaching for his throat right away, he gripped both sides of her helmet tightly, and suddenly Angel felt an excruciating wave of pain wash over her body. Her skin burned, her eye watered, her head pounded so hard she thought it would explode. What was he doing?! She tried to endure the horrible sensation as she saw her own body start to glitch in a cloud of pixels, but she couldn’t hold back her instinctive reaction.

“GAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!”

Her ear piercing scream of agony echoed through the lightning filled sky as she tried to break free from his grasp, even making the decision to unwrap her wire from his neck to fight back. But he kept his hands locked on her head, and to her horror, her energy started to drain, as if he was sucking the life right out of her. Her mind turned woozy, making her attempt to break free much more difficult.

After what felt like hours of falling and struggling and her stamina draining, Angel felt so weak that she almost let go of Xisuma. However, her opponent’s surprise move must have had an effect on him too, because just as Angel felt on the verge of losing consciousness, his eyes rolled back in his head and he stopped flying, causing the two of them to take a nosedive towards the ground below.

Angel saw this as a chance to gain the upper hand. Trying to stay awake as she and her opponent dive bombed through the storm, she tightened her grip on his throat. But she instantly became more alert as his eyes suddenly snapped open and began struggling once more, trying to pull the wire away from his neck.

The pair continued hurling towards the earth alongside the rain, locked in a dangerous game of flatliner. Angel tightened the wire around her opponent’s neck further, determined to be the victor. But with whatever Xisuma had done to her, she was extremely tired and on the verge of fainting. So the final result of their skirmish couldn’t be predicted.

One thing could be said, however; with how Xisuma’s fighting was becoming weaker by the second, it was obvious that he was close to passing out. His gloved fingers soon started to slip away from the wire, his choking could no longer be heard over the howling wind, his face was turning purple. All the sniper had to do was hang on a bit longer-

“XISUMA!!”

Out of nowhere, a new voice called out over the thunder, followed by someone ramming into the two hackers. The force of the blow caused Angel to lose her grip on Xisuma and go spiraling away, off on her own path towards the ground. Although she only caught a glimpse of the figure, she was able to just about make out a younger man in a red shirt through her rain slick visor, gliding away with the large pair of elytra strapped to his back. A green blur could be seen dangling loosely in his arms. Xisuma.

“GAH!!” The glitching sniper snapped her eye wide open as she realized she was now in complete freefall. She tried to activate a flight hack to slow her descent, but to her surprise, nothing happened. Perhaps she was just so exhausted that she needed a bit more time… a luxury that she might not be able to afford, given how close she was getting to the ground. She took a breath, gritted her teeth, and gave another try.

But again, her attempt at flying failed. What was going on?! Her mind raced at the options it could have been, but every possibility sounded more ridiculous than the next.

A scary realization suddenly came over Angel. What Xisuma did. What made her feel so tired and weak in the first place. What made her unable to use her powers…

Xisuma leeched her hacks.

An ability reserved only for use on traitors of the Shadowbyte Army, leeching was used to take away one’s hacks, before ultimately being executed. The greatest amount of shame somebody could feel before death; having their precious gift given to them by Ecryptos taken away. The feeling of failing the savior who took them under his wing, the one who gave them a home when they had nobody else to turn to…

At least Ecryptos had the kindness in his heart to put them out of their misery.

But that was the thing that set Angel’s mind racing. Ecryptos was the only known hacker that could accomplish such a feat. He _ created _ leeching hacks, after all. So how could Xisuma have to ability to do only what the Army’s general could?

As much as her mind demanded an answer, her focus had to shift to the situation in front of her; not fall to her death. Her gaze darted all over the field below her, moving from person to person. One of them _ had _ to be one of her colleagues. She then reached for her earpiece and yelled out over the wind and rain, silently hoping that Xisuma didn’t disable all lines of communication.

“This is Nightingale to all!” She stated, trying to slow down her descent by spreading her arms and legs out. She heard that even her voice was glazed over with static and glitching, but she continued. “I need immediate assistance! My flight hacks are disabled and I’m falling fast! One of you, catch me before I touch down, over!”

Static filled her ears once more, and her heart stopped. Nobody could hear her, and she was about to touch down any second… was this it? Her last moment? She couldn’t see any other way out of it. Accepting her fate was the only thing she could do. So she closed her eye, and let the thought of death take hold-

“HOLD ON!”

A voice called out over the rain, followed by Angel feeling a pair of arms scoop her out of the air. What? She weakly tilted her head up, and saw one of her own, a Special Ops Shadowbyte soldier. Jazz!

But the moment of relief washing over her didn’t last for long. Before she knew it, both her and Jazz made a rough landing on the ground, and she immediately collapsed out of exhaustion and into the mud.

“Ma’am!” Jazz stated, trying to help the fallen Angel to her feet. “What happened?!”

“I…” She breathed, her eyelid heavy and droopy. She could still hear the glitching in her voice. “Xisuma… the hacker… he leeched… he leeched my hacks…”

Her shaking words silenced the soldier. “...what…?!” He asked, glancing around them, as if to try and find the man. “He leeched them?! How-”

The taller woman then placed her hands on his shoulders to cut him off. “Jazz… listen to me,” She stated, still trying to catch her breath. “Listen to me carefully. There’s almost no chance of me getting out of here in my current state, but I can try to help the ones that can. I need to know who’s still alive.” As much as she didn’t want to die, she knew that her chances of survival were slim to none.

Jazz was stunned for a moment, but he took a breath and nodded. “Y...yes ma’am,” He continued to dart his eyes around. “Sakura’s still up, I know that for sure. She’s still in her mech.” He leaned his head to gesture behind his superior, where sure enough, the giant R.O.S.A. was fending off several attackers. “I don’t know where Lucky and Nix are, but I hope they found a place to hide-”

A loud _ BANG _ sounded through the roaring wind, followed by a slow metallic _ creak _ and a harsh _ THUNK _. The younger soldier glanced over Angel’s shoulder, and after a split second of confusion, his eyes suddenly widened in sheer panic.

“...oh shit, shit, shit, shit…!”

Before Angel could say anything, Jazz suddenly grabbed her by the shoulders and ran in the opposite direction of where Sakura was. She struggled to keep up alongside him, taken aback by the sudden action. Why was he running? 

She glanced over her shoulder to see what had happened. The R.O.S.A. had collapsed onto its side, smoke billowing out of the giant metal machine. Part of the engine was sticking out, letting off an unsettling red glow that got brighter and brighter by the second. Many people could be seen running or scrambling away, Sakura among them-

And then the mech was consumed in a ball of red fire, exploding with a thunderous _ BOOM _. Angel was sent flying backwards, the only sound in her ears being a loud and constant ringing. Out of instinct, she covered her arms over her head in an attempt to protect herself as she landed and skidded harshly along the muddy ground. Several large chunks of debris and shrapnel fell onto and around her sprawled figure like hail, some causing much more pain than others. 

For what felt like hours, the sniper heard nothing but the loud ringing. She had to get up, before she could be apprehended. But the moment she cracked open her eye, she was faced with utter chaos. And although her blurry vision was fading in and out, along with the ringing in her head refusing to cease, she saw dozens of swiftly moving shapes and colors and light. The faint crackling of nearby flames and echoing screams of pain and terror barely reached her ears. And the smell… the strong, pungent smoke from the explosion overpowered nearly everything else. The only other scent she could pick up was sickeningly dry and sweet, almost metallic. Blood. Whether it was hers or somebody else's, she couldn’t tell.

She slowly rolled over onto her side, and was met with a new sight. There was a figure right next to her on the ground, a black and grey blur stained with crimson. The metallic smell of blood became much stronger as she tried to get a clearer picture by leaning closer. Her stomach soon dropped as she realized who it might have been.

Now Angel _ had _ to move. No matter how badly her vision was fading, no matter how much of her consciousness was slipping away, no matter how feeble she felt; she needed to get out of there.

But before she could try and get up, the last bit of her vision was consumed by darkness, and her body went limp as she fell into an unwanted and dreaded slumber.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also available on Tumblr and Wattpad!

**Lucky**

At first, he thought it was all a dream.

Lucky felt himself starting to wake up, his closed eyelids heavy and his head pounding with a massive headache. 

“Nggh...” 

He let out a tired whine, and lifted his hands to cover his face. He thought it was some nightmare that he had. How the mission started to go horribly wrong, how the man named Xisuma was revealed to be a terrifying hacker, how even Nightingale couldn’t stop him… 

At least he was still in the Hive, right?

Lucky figured that he might as well get out of bed; he had to get his equipment started up. So he wiggled out of the covers and rolled onto his other side-

And unexpectedly rolled off the bed and crashed onto the floor with a harsh  _ THUNK _ .

“GAH!!” The blonde cried out in pain as he landed flat on his back. Not again… He needed to stop doing that. Or just become better coordinated overall. He pressed his hands against the dirty tile to push himself up-

Wait, tile?

He lifted his slightly blurry vision up to meet his immediate surroundings. Even though he couldn't see clearly, he didn't recognize anything. His floor wasn't carpeted, his walls weren't painted grey, and it wasn't supposed to be so bright.

As Lucky got to his feet, he rubbed his eyes and blinked a few times. Maybe he was seeing things… But still, nothing changed. 

So it  _ wasn't _ a dream after all.

He was in what appeared to be a hastily thrown together bedroom. It was pretty bare; a bed and a small nightstand were the only pieces of furniture to be seen, both shoved into a corner. It almost appeared as if it were one of the storage rooms in that bunker he and the rest of the byte explored-

A scary realization suddenly fell upon Lucky. He was all alone in that room… and there was no sign of anybody. Sakura, Nix, Grey, Nightingale...

And Jazz. He  _ had _ to find Jazz.

He scrambled over to the iron door and grabbed the handle. But once he tried to turn it, it didn't budge.

"Oh nononono…" Lucky muttered to himself, and he jiggled the handle harder. It still refused to turn and open the door. “Please open…! Please…!” Maybe it was just stuck… he couldn't have it be locked. He needed to find the others. 

He kept trying and trying to turn the handle for what seemed like ages, but no matter how hard he twisted and pulled, the door wouldn't open. Before he knew it, he couldn't even keep his grip anymore, because his hands were shaking and sweating so much. The door was obviously locked… how was he going to get out now?

His mind began to race and panic at the possibilities of where Jazz might have been, or the rest of the team for that matter. But then a thought popped into his head, and he suddenly felt extremely stupid; he could just teleport out of there!

The hacker took a step back from the door, before closing his eyes in order to focus. He concentrated on activating a teleportation hack, waiting for that familiar buzzing in his chest to start…

Only nothing happened.

Lucky opened his eyes, confused. Why wasn't it working? Maybe he was too tired to teleport… perhaps a ghost hack would be easier on him. He could just pass through the door instead of teleporting past it. So he pressed his hands against the cold metal and began to focus again, waiting to feel his body become light as a feather and phase through the iron barrier…

But again, nothing happened. Not even the  _ slightest _ hint of progress. 

A sinking feeling began to form in the pit of his stomach. What happened to his hacks? He didn't feel drained or fatigued; he felt totally normal. They should have been working-

It was the sound of distant voices and footsteps that made him freeze in place.

At first, they were barely noticeable, just as unimportant as the dust floating in the air or the faint dirty footprints scattered around the tile. But once he realized they were there, he couldn't forget that they were present. Although he didn't recognize them, he could tell there two; a man and a woman.

And they were getting closer by the second.

Lucky felt his heart start to pound against his ribcage. What was he going to do?! He was stuck in that little room! He whipped his head around and only saw two things; the nightstand and the bed.

He would have to make do.

He ran over towards the cot and quickly got onto his stomach, before sliding himself underneath as far as he could. For once, he was happy that he was tiny. Now he had a place to hide. Sure, it seemed somewhat childish, but he wasn't given much to work with in the first place.

The voices continued to echo and bounce off the corridor's walls, and Lucky edged himself further under the bed as they got closer. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears, panicked thoughts buzzing in his mind. Every single one of his senses was in absolute overdrive as he tried to identify the two people talking.

He almost shrieked when the iron door to his room opened, and he saw two pairs of feet walk in. One person was wearing a pair of striped knee high socks and sneakers, probably the woman. The other, however, was familiar; sleek, almost robotic steel boots, painted a bright shade of yellow.

It was Biffa. The one Jazz had shot down. It  _ had _ to be him.

"You… sure this is the right room?" The woman asked, obviously confused at how nobody appeared to be in the cell-like chamber.

The man's voice sounded after. "This is the one X said to go to…" His stanced shifted, a soft mechanical  _ whirr _ sounding as he did so. "He couldn't have escaped, right? The door was locked. And Xisuma took his powers away, like the others."

Lucky shrunk further under the bed, further away from the two W.E.S. operatives. He silently begged that they’d stop looking and just leave. Maybe they would think that he was in a different room. Or that he escaped. Just as long as they were convinced that he wasn’t there.

But what did he mean by ‘Xisuma took his powers away’? He probably meant his hacks, and the grim realization of that statement explained why he couldn’t use them, and also hinted to the fact that the rest of the byte could no longer hack either. But how could Xisuma take away their powers? He wasn’t Ecryptos!

A moment of agonizing silence ensued. But then, Lucky saw the woman take a small step towards where he was hiding.

“I...think he’s under the bed, Biffa…” She said.

The blonde's heart stopped at her few words.

"What? You sure?" Biffa questioned.

"I think I see him, yeah…" She assured. "You mind helping me move it?"

“Not at all.”

The cyborg and the woman then stepped towards the bed and bent their knees. To Lucky’s horror, the two managed to lift it up with ease and lean it against the other wall. Now he was completely exposed.

“S-stay away…!” The blonde scooted back into a corner, pressing himself against the wall. He was even more horrified when he saw what Cleo looked like. Her freckled skin was greenish blue and sickly, her eyes were faded. There were even exposed bits of bones and rotting flesh, especially along her lower torso; half of her ribcage could be seen, partially hidden by the ragged crop top she wore. It was as if she had crawled out of the ground, out of the grave…

Like she was a zombie. 

So many questions ran through his head, but he didn't have the chance to process the situation before he was pulled up off the floor by the woman and her colleague. “W-wait, please!” He begged. “P-please, no!!”

“C’mon, blondie,” Cleo replied, leading him out the door and down the long hallway with Biffa. “You and your friends got a  _ lot _ of explaining to do.” A slight bit of venom dripped from the words of her last sentence.

Lucky tried his hardest to keep up with the people escorting him. He didn’t want to be dragged around like a ragdoll the entire time. But he couldn’t help but trip over his feet every now and then, only to be pulled back up by Biffa and Cleo. It wasn’t long before he felt his breathing quicken as he stumbled and scrambled around. Not another panic attack, not here-

He  _ had _ to distance himself. Find a safe place inside his head. Something to focus on and escape into the depths of his mind. His blue gaze flickered to Cleo for a moment, before it went back to the floor. Thinking about how she looked like an undead creature sounded good enough.

She was obviously not a full on zombie, like the ones that crawled out from the darkness of caves or the ones that spawned in the dead of night. She was definitely sentient. The only way he could think of her looking like that was that her code must have been altered at some point in her life.

As far as his knowledge stretched, people were either born with their code abnormal, or were involved in some sort of event that changed it, whether accidental or intentional. The former was the most common way, for altering a living being’s code was more than risky; it was potentially lethal. Most who had their code altered wouldn’t even survive such a change, and even if they did, it was said to be an excruciatingly painful experience, physically, mentally, and emotionally. They never made it out alive without some sort of permanent trauma or physical change.

Thankfully for him (and pretty much everyone in the Shadowbyte Army), he was born with altered code, altered enough to where he could learn how to change the code around him. Ecryptos wasn’t willing to put anyone, especially the children taken into his care and guidance, through something as horrific as having their code altered and tweaked. If a potential recruit’s code wasn’t viable, then they would be released for their cooperation. It was a win-win for everyone!

So if his logic and knowledge was correct, Lucky could presume that Cleo could also be a hacker. The knowledge of Xisuma being a powerful hacker was scary enough; if she could also alter code, who knows what she would do.

The trio turned into another hallway, and new voices could be heard. Some were recognizable, others were completely new. Soon Lucky and the two others flanking him passed by a massive window that peered into a large room, and he felt his stomach twist and churn as he looked inside. Several people were sprawled out on beds, badly beaten and covered in bandages. There was Doc, who had his broken arm in a sling, False, who had a massive ice pack on her head, and several others. An older, bearded man in a plain white lab coat could be seen darting around, tending to the many injured.

But one person immediately caught Lucky's attention. In one of the beds, there was someone covered almost head to toe in gauze, to cover extensive and brutal injuries. Slight patches of ruby red scales could be seen through the bandages, stained with green blood. Creeper blood. He knew he recognized him… Python? Python. Python was his name, right?

Just the mere sight of what state the creeper was in made him feel the urge to barf where he stood. Half of his head was wrapped in the white gauze, with one of his eyes seemingly bleeding underneath. One of his arms was in a makeshift cast and sling. And... oh gosh, his leg was missing-

Lucky lost sight of the red creeper as soon as he gained it. But it wasn't like he could get his image out of his mind easily. It was all he could focus on as he continued to be escorted down the hall. How he barely even looked alive, how much trauma he had received from the battle. Maybe it was from the R.O.S.A. explosion? He could only mentally argue and debate with himself for what the cause was. 

He didn’t know how far Cleo and Biffa had taken him. The constant twisting and turning through the countless halls made his head spin. However, before he knew it, they had arrived in one final stretch of hallway, where several figures stood, all of them men.

Two of the men he didn't recognize. One of them was a man with long brown hair tied back into a ponytail, a pair of sunglasses rested on the bridge of his nose. Another was a taller blonde who obviously had altered code, due to his eyes being nothing but pools of dark crimson. And...

Xisuma. Xisuma stood in the hallway, arms crossed and stance strong, chatting with the two men. Lucky’s blood went cold at the mere sight of him. What was he going to do? Was he going to hurt him?!

All of a sudden, the nearby door burst open, and a man with unruly brown hair and a cybernetic eye stumbled out, clutching his nose and cursing out loud. Lucky soon recognized him as another one of the potential threats that he identified before leaving the Hive. Iskall85. 

“God damnit, ow!” Iskall cursed out. Once he took away his hand from his face, Lucky saw that his nose was crooked and gushing blood. Immediately, he became concerned, more for his own safety than Iskall’s health.

The man with crimson eyes, on the other hand, definitely showed concern for the brunette, and he rushed over to help him stay on his feet. “Woah, Iskall, what happened?!” He asked.

Iskall leaned against the wall and spat out blood, spraying crimson droplets onto the grey tile. "She headbutted me and broke my damn nose!" He growled, glaring back at the door where he came from.

A muffled female voice sounded from inside the room. Coda's voice. "That's cuz ya fuckin' deserved it, asshole!"

In an odd way, Lucky hearing somebody he knew was comforting. Even if he thought she was absolutely terrifying, he was more than happy that she was on his side.

But as quickly as he saw Iskall exiting the room, the brunette and the red-eyed blonde reentered, and came back out a moment later with their arms wrapped around Coda’s. Her wrists were restrained with green translucent cuffs, similar to the ones Lucky could make. No,  _ exactly _ like the ones he could make. The only difference was the color.

“Aw, ya didn’t send the cute one back in to get me?~” She whined, sticking out her bottom lip. Her lips then formed into a flirtatious grin as her dark eyes locked on one of the people in the hallway; the brunette man with the red shirt and the sunglasses. “Yo! Red delicious!”

The man didn’t say anything at first, but the moment Coda finished speaking, he glanced down at his shirt and realized that she was talking to him. His face flared up bright red, and he began to visibly sweat. “Wh...wha…?” He struggled to make any full sentences, let alone words as he tugged on his shirt collar.

The creeper fell silent at his reaction, but soon her eyes filled with shining mischief. “Oh ho ho, so you’re a blushy one, huh?” Her sharp-toothed grin grew wider, so wide at it almost seemed too big to fit on her face. “This is gonna be fun!~”

Iskall’s mouth bent into a harsh frown, his bloodstained teeth gritted. “Oh no you don’t!” He then began to pull her down the hallway, the blonde next to him doing the same. “C’mon, you’re coming with us!”

Coda’s smile disappeared, and her entire demeanor changed in an instant. As if it was all a facade to hide what was really going on inside her head. She locked her obsidian gaze on Lucky as the two men started to roughly drag her down the hall. “Don’t give in, techie!” She called out, struggling against the green cuffs around her wrists. “Don’t give in! Keep your fuckin’ mouth shut, gottit?!” 

Lucky felt like a deer in the headlights. He was frozen in place, his feet glued to the floor. What did Coda mean by ‘don’t give in’...?!

Before he could mentally come up with an answer, Xisuma then spoke up. “Cleo, Biffa, you know the drill. Come on.” He then stepped through the entrance to the room, and Cleo and Biffa dragged Lucky inside with them.

Lucky's eyes darted around the room. Like his own 'bedroom', it appeared to be arranged in a hurry. A pair of dusty folding chairs and a table were the only pieces of any sort of furniture in the small space. A small splatter of blood stained the tile floor, slightly smeared from a footprint. He could easily presume who that was from.

"Sit down," Xisuma said, leading the timid blonde to one of the chairs. He followed the command instantly, shakily taking a seat, and felt somewhat relieved as the powerful hacker began to walk away towards his two W.E.S. coworkers. But it soon transformed back into fear as he heard Cleo speak again.

“Aren’t you going to restrain him? With the cuff things you can make?” She questioned, gesturing to a now even more terrified Lucky.

Xisuma shook his head. “He hasn’t been violent, Cleo. And even if he was, I honestly doubt he could harm anyone.”

Biffa tapped his chin. “You have a fair point...” He started, before glancing over at the blonde. “But are you sure that’s a smart decision, X? It could all be an act.”

X gave a nod to the cyborg. “Yes, I’m sure. And if something happens, we’ll be right outside.”

The zombie shifted her dull green gaze to his terrified figure. She pursed her lips, as if trying to form an argument against her colleague’s decision. But before long, she let out a small sigh. “Alright then... if you say so.”

“Great.“ Xisuma said, and he gestured to the door. “Cub will be here in a few minutes, so we can leave him as he is. C’mon.” He then opened the door again, letting Cleo and Biffa walk through, and keeping his gaze on Lucky the whole time, only breaking it as he walked out of the room himself.

Lucky remained glued to the chair, even as Xisuma closed the door behind him and his two companions. He was too scared to make a single move. His frightened eyes darted around the now empty room, mind racing at what was going to happen to him. Where was Jazz when he needed him?! 

A shiver went up his spine, and he wrapped his arms around himself as his teeth chattered. The room was freezing! Even if he was underground, the hallway was much warmer than in there. But the temperature was the least of his worries. He was more concerned with what was going to happen to him, and even more so with where his brother was. He had already seen Coda… there had to be others, right?

After what felt like long hours of dreadful silence, so much so that his ears rang, the iron door opened with a long  _ creak _ . Lucky jumped and snapped his head towards the entrance, and he was greeted with a taller man in a white lab coat. It was the man he had seen before, treating the many wounded. A large folder packed with papers, a pen, and a clipboard were gripped in his hands. It was obvious that he hadn’t slept in awhile, given the distinct, dark bags hanging under his bloodshot eyes. It made sense; from what Lucky had briefly seen, he was the only one able to give medical treatment to serious wounds and injuries.

The man rubbed his eyes as he shut the door behind him. “Hey,” He said, walking towards the chair opposite of Lucky and sitting down. “I have a few questions for you, alright?”

The blonde remained silent. He avoided meeting the other’s gaze, and couldn’t help but fidget in his seat. So this was an interrogation or some sort? Or something like it?

“I’m Cub,” The man said calmly, introducing himself and catching Lucky off guard. “What’s your name?”

Lucky kept quiet. Why was this guy being so… nice? And relaxed? Sure, he seemed tired, but he was pretty certain that it wouldn’t mean that he would give him leeway. Did he have some other ideas in store to get intel out of him? Something much more violent?!

“Are you gonna say anything?” Cub asked. “You’ve gotta have a name, huh?”

The blonde hung his head low. He felt so ashamed that he was giving in so quickly… but the thought of having information forced out of him was overwhelmingly scary. However, a thought then formed in his mind… perhaps he didn’t have to tell the whole story. “...y...you can call me Profit.” He mumbled out his code name.

“Profit?”

“Y-yes…”

Cub gave a nod and clicked his pen. “Alright, Profit…” He made a note on his piece of paper, before opening the file. "Now, first off, I want you to tell me who each of these people are. Names, descriptions, everything." He then pulled out a stack of papers and laid them out on the table. They were photographs of most of his teammates.

Lucky shifted his eyes to the collection of pictures. Most of them weren’t the best quality; he could assume that Cub (or somebody else) had thrown them all together in a hurry. Either that, or the ones being photographed weren’t exactly cooperative. He could immediately assume the latter with the picture of Coda; she was flipping off the camera and sneering at the photographer behind it. 

He didn't want to give his colleagues identities away. He couldn't! He  _ needed _ to be quiet...

But what would be the cost of his decision? Him staying in that room for hours on end? The operatives of W.E.S. threatening him? Or having the possibility of them using even harsher tactics to get him to talk?!

Too scared to keep his mouth shut, Lucky shamefully began to identify his colleagues in the photos. But like he did with himself, he only used their code names; he at least had a bit of dignity to spare. 

Cub seemingly grew more and more intrigued with every word the blonde said. He scribbled illegible notes on his clipboard, almost filling up the entire first piece of paper once the hacker was done pointing out who was who.

It grew even worse when Cub asked Lucky to tell him what had actually happened. Their plans, their motive; he wanted to know it all, down to the last detail. And Lucky gave it to him, his feeling of shame growing with each word he spat out and every minute that passed. 

But even somebody as timid as Lucky had some sliver of courage in him.

“Alright…” Cub wrote down a few more notes. At this point, he had filled another two sheets of paper. “And what happened after you, Zero, and Nightingale retreated?”

“W...we tried to get reinforcements…” Lucky whimpered. “But Nightingale couldn’t contact-"

He forced himself to stop talking. He said too much. He was willing to give up his team members' names, but he couldn't let Cub know about any others! Not to mention the whole Army!

“Contact who?” The older man asked. “Did you guys try to get in touch with reinforcements?”

Lucky stayed quiet.

“Profit… who did you try and contact?” Cub repeated.

Lucky bit the inside of his cheek, before letting out a sigh of defeat. “...the Shadowbyte Army…” He muttered.

Cub raised an eyebrow at his response. “The… Shadowbyte Army?”

Lucky nodded. “Y-yes… W-well, more of our main base of operations...”

The man scribbled down more on the paper. “So there  _ are _ more of you? More hackers?” 

“Mhmm…”

“How many?”

The blonde shrugged. “I-I don't know…” He admitted, glancing away. He could never keep track of the amount of people that would call him for assistance or information while they were out on missions. 

"Is there anything else you can tell me? About this 'Army'?"

Lucky remained silent. He  _ had _ to keep his mouth shut. For him  _ and _ for the others. He had already given away so much information… why did he have to be such a-

“Well… I guess that’s it for us, then.”

Wait, what?

Cub then gathered up the photos on the table and put them back in his folder before standing. “You’ve actually been a good deal of help.” To Lucky’s surprise, he gave a small smile. “Thank you for that, Profit.”

The blonde was stunned at how the interrogation went. He wasn’t even threatened. All he did was tell the events of what happened and identify his colleagues… Except for one. The most important one of them all. At least to him, anyway.

Jazz. 

Why wouldn’t the W.E.S. operatives have his photograph? Or even mention him at all? They had brought up everyone else...

Lucky needed an answer, and fast. He  _ had _ to know where his brother was. So just as he saw Cub grasp the door handle, he sprang up from his seat. “W-wait!”

The man stopped and looked over his shoulder. “Hmm?” His fingers slid off the metal knob, a hint of curiosity to his voice. “You have something else to say?”

Lucky nodded. “Y-yeah… er, well, more of a question,” He began, before clearing his throat to speak. "Wh...where's Riff…?"

A look of confusion spread across his interrogator's face. “Riff...?”

“Y-yeah, Riff...” Lucky repeated. “H-he… he’s tall, has blue hair, blue eyes.” After a moment of quiet, he gulped. “L...looks like me, too…?”

Cub’s silence continued for a second as his brows furrowed. But it was quickly replaced with an expression of shock and… something else. Sadness? Guilt? Remorse? The blonde couldn’t tell.

“Uhh…” The grey-bearded man sounded uneasy as he opened the folder once again. “We did have one from your group…” He cleared his throat. “Die from his injuries in the battle. We tried to save him, but… we got there too late. We haven’t been able to make a positive identification, but from the description you gave, so far it sounds like him.”

Lucky felt his heart drop at the man’s words. One from his group? Killed? He had to be lying, right? Of course he was lying… they were the enemy. That’s what they did. They  _ lied _ .

“And if you want to, there’s a picture of him in the file.” Cub’s next words made the blonde’s heart stop completely. He  _ wasn’t _ lying. “You sound like you knew him well enough to make an official identification.”

Lucky’s mind raced. Should he agree? Was it really Jazz? There was a chance it wasn’t; maybe he was still alive. Maybe they just didn’t get his picture yet. The thought of not knowing was unbearable. So, taking a deep breath, he nodded. “Sh-show me.”

The older man nodded in return, not saying a word. He pinched the edge of a paper in his folder and carefully slid it out. But then he hesitated, his tired eyes glanced back between the blonde and the photo. A solemn expression passed over his face for just a moment, before he held out the picture for the blonde to take.

The moment Lucky grasped the photograph and flipped it over, he felt is stomach twist as he saw a sickly, still man laid out on a table, everything from the shoulders down covered with a sheet. He had never seen a dead body before, but it was somewhat like what he expected. His lips were blue, his skin was drained of any color or life, his hair was caked in dried blood from the disturbingly deep gash on his head.

But what stood out to him were his eyes. They were dead eyes. What used to be a bright shade of blue was now dull and clouded over with decay. And they were wide open, staring right back at him. Almost as if they knew exactly who he was...

It was Jazz. Dead.

“Profit…?” Cub asked, though his words didn’t stick into Lucky’s mind. “Is it Riff?”

The blonde’s response was, at first, nothing. He was too overwhelmed by shock to say anything. Involuntary squeaks sounded from his throat once he actually wanted to try and speak.

The older man’s mouth bent into a frown, and he gave a small nod back. “I’ll...put this away now,” He took the photograph of Jazz out of Lucky’s hands and brought it back into his folder. “If… if it makes you feel any better, I don’t think he suffered for long…”

Lucky barely heard him speak. His mind buzzed with panic, and felt his hands and feet and lips go numb as his breathing got faster. His stomach churned at the image now burned into his brain. Jazz's lifeless body, all pale and beaten and cold… He wanted to throw up.

“Profit…?”

Lucky didn’t care about Cub’s words. Eyes wide and now on the verge of tears, he tried to wobble his way over to the chair, only to immediately collapse to the floor the moment he took a step, and fully started to break down. He felt like there was a massive anvil being pressed against his chest and he couldn’t get it off. He couldn’t  _ breathe _ -

“Profit, Profit, hey!”

The blonde suddenly felt two hands on his shoulders. Cub’s. But he didn’t want him touching him. He didn’t even want to be in the same  _ room _ as him. The very moment Cub came in contact with him, an overwhelming feeling of terror filled his chest, and he felt like he had no other way to release it except to scream at the top of his lungs.

“GET AWAY FROM ME!!” He shoved the man’s arms away as hard as he could. “YOU LET MY BROTHER  _ DIE _ ! YOU COULD HAVE SAVED HIM!” Hot tears streamed down his cheeks and blurred his vision, but he didn’t care. He just wanted it to be over. To have this all be a dream. Jazz was his whole world… he couldn’t lose him. He  _ couldn’t _ .

All Lucky heard from Cub was silence. Of course he wasn’t saying anything… he didn’t care about him one bit. He only cared about his other colleagues. The ones that didn’t have to raise and protect a younger brother from the age of four. The ones that weren't the guardian of the only family they had left.

The blonde soon felt that sudden panic in him transform into an immense sadness, and he looked back up at the man in the lab coat. “W-why didn’t you save him…?” He cried. “Why…?!”

Cub’s eyes were wide, and he was back on his feet. His mouth open and closed as he tried to speak, but nothing understandable could be heard. After what seemed like several long moments, he sputtered out a few words. “He...he was your brother…?”

Lucky couldn't respond. He was too busy sobbing and panicking on the floor. Jazz was dead.  _ Dead _ . And he was never coming back. 

...and Cub could have done something to prevent that.

The blonde was overwhelmed with all of the emotions going through him. Sorrow, terror, sadness… and now, to his own surprise, rage. A fiery hatred for Cub sparked and spread like wildfire through his body. He lifted his teary gaze to him, burning red anger shining in his blue eyes.

The man in the lab coat still had a shocked expression on his face. "P...Profit…" He began. "I-"

"SHUT UP!"

Lucky didn't want to hear him speak. He  _ hated _ Cub. Rage was the only thing consuming his mind. And he had to let it out, to let it escape. So he then screamed and charged at Cub, his weak fists flying. 

It was  _ his _ fault that Jazz was dead. All his fault. If he had waited to heal his friends and went to treat Jazz sooner, he would have lived!

He didn't stop screaming in anger and trying to punch Cub, even as he heard the door burst open behind him and felt two sets of arms roughly grab him and drag him out of the makeshift interrogation room. He could see who had taken a hold of him out of the corners of his eyes; the brunette man that Coda had flirted with, and the red-eyed blonde that had dragged her away with the help of Iskall.

"LET ME GO!!" Lucky screeched and squirmed, eyes locked on a slightly battered and bruised Cub as he came out into the hallway, a worried Xisuma by his side. “You’re a  _ MURDERER _ !” He cried out at Cub, catching his attention. “A  _ COWARD _ !”

He kept screaming and struggling as he was dragged further away, long after he lost sight of the source of his anger. Before he knew it, he was shoved into another room and locked inside; his bedroom. Right where his day of hell started.

Lucky scrambled to his feet and pounded on the iron door with all his might. "LET ME OUT!!" He peered through the small window, and saw the two men that threw him back in his room. The blonde was set on walking away, but to Lucky's surprise, the brunette kept looking back and stopping.

The man with crimson eyes soon rested a hand on his colleague's shoulder. “Ren, just leave him… he needs his space.” He said, gesturing his head in the direction of where they came from.

The brunette opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out. After a moment, he let out an audible sigh, glanced back at Lucky, and nodded, before following his friend back down the hallway.

Lucky's eyes widened. "Wait, HEY!" He cried out, starting to bang on the door again. "COME BACK HERE!" But soon his arms grew weary, and before he knew it, he had to lean his back against the door to rest.

He stood there, trying to catch his breath and absorb what had happened in the span of those five or so minutes. He had gotten thrown back in his dusty cell, he had managed to land a few punches on Cub, he gave away information to the enemy-

And Jazz was dead. Jazz was  _ dead _ .  _ Dead… _ And now Lucky was all alone.

With that last thought, Lucky finally broke. Before he knew it, he had slid down to the floor, buried his face in his knees, and began to sob. Loud, angry, distraught sobs. "Wh-why is this happening…?" He cried to himself and sniffed. "Why is this happening…?!" 

The only answer he got was a grim silence. And it was all he needed to know that this wasn’t a nightmare he could wake up from.

~~~~~

Lucky lost track of how many hours had passed since he heard of Jazz’s death. His eyes were red, sore, and puffy from the countless tears he had shed. He had managed to get up off the floor and crawl into his bed some time before, but he hadn't moved since then.

Not that he wanted to, anyway.

In that time, he had tried distancing himself from his surroundings. He tried to imagine a happy place, somewhere he felt safe. He felt safe back at the Hive, back in his bunker, back with Jazz. Maybe he could just imagine he was just away on a trip-

It was the sound of his door opening that brought him back to reality. Who was it now…?

“Uhh… hey.” 

Lucky recognized the familiar voice. It was one of the men that had to drag him back to his cell. What was his name again? Ren? Ren would have to do. He didn’t have to will to speak up and ask, let alone turn himself over to face him.

After a moment of silence, Ren cleared his throat. “I...I brought you some food. In case you were hungry.” He offered.

Lucky refused to move from his bed. Even though he was hungry, he didn’t have an appetite. The image of his dead brother’s face was the only thing consuming his thoughts.

A long moment of tense silence passed before Ren spoke again. “I’ll… just leave this here, then.” The sound of his footsteps approached the distraught blonde, followed by a couple soft  _ clinks _ as something was set on the nightstand. The smell of warm food wafted into his nose, and another series of footfalls could be heard moving away from him soon afterwards.

Just as Lucky thought Ren was going to leave, however, his voice sounded one more time. “And… I’m sorry.” He said, catching him slightly off guard. “About your brother…”

The blonde didn't respond, but he couldn't help but shift slightly and wrap the blanket further around himself. He was sorry? Why? Ren didn't even know him… he didn't have to give condolences. Was this just another way to try and get inside his head?

He figured that his silence was enough to drive the man away, for a long  _ creak _ and a soft  _ click _ could be heard. Ren had locked his door and left. Finally, he could grieve in peace…

But the thought of somebody, especially an enemy, seemingly concerned for him after such a tragedy made Lucky feel extremely conflicted. He made him something to eat, gave his apologies… why would he do that?

After awhile, the smell of the food became too tempting to pass up, and he rolled onto his other side to see what was there. On the nightstand was a tray of food; a baked potato, bread, and a glass of water. Nothing fancy, but hey, it was something. 

He threw his blankets off of him and sat up, his feet hanging over the edge of the bed. It was at that moment that he noticed he wasn’t given a fork or a knife; just a spoon. It made sense though. He figured that nobody wanted him getting a hold of anything sharp.

Setting the tray on his lap, he scooped up some of the potatoes with his spoon and ate it. It was actually pretty tasty, despite it now being somewhat cold. But he didn’t really care. Before he knew it, he had scarfed down the whole entire meal, and realized just how long it had been since he had eaten anything.

Lucky grasped the edges of the empty tray and set it back on his nightstand, before climbing back under the covers of his bed. Maybe now that he ate something, he could finally fall asleep...

But every time he shut his eyes, he saw Jazz’s lifeless eyes staring right back at him.

~~~~~

“Profit? You awake?”

Lucky was still for a moment. He hadn’t been able to doze off in the entire time he had been alone. All he could do was stare at the wall, his thoughts being his only company. It's not that he wasn't tired; it was that he was too tired to fall asleep.

He rolled over onto his other side, craning his neck to the door. Ren was there, standing in the doorframe. At least it wasn't Cub or Xisuma.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Ren said, and he gave a small smile as he saw the empty tray on the nightstand. “Was the food alright?”

Lucky nodded, staying under his covers. “Mhmm…”

“Good, good.” Ren sounded genuinely pleased at his response. He cleared his throat. “Erm, anyway, Xisuma wants me to take you somewhere. He said that you might need it… given what happened.”

The blonde was silent for a moment. Did he  _ have _ to move? His bed was so warm… But if Xisuma wanted him to do something, he figured he might as well listen. What did he have to lose?

Sighing, he lifted the covers off of him and slid off the bed. He sighed, rubbing his eyes and dragging his feet across the floor.

Ren frowned a bit. “You get any sleep?”

Lucky answered with his silence.

"I'll… take that as a no, then."

The brunette let the Lucky out of his room and closed the door, before slowly leading him down the winding hallways. Maybe it was more to not get too far ahead; Lucky was practically half asleep, too drained to be up and about.

The young soldier didn't bother to pay attention to what Ren was saying or where he was taking him. Part of him felt numb, but the other half somehow kept on going. It was a strange feeling… he didn't like it. At all.

But he accepted the fact that this would be his new reality. One where he was no longer the person he used to be.

He barely noticed when Ren had finally stopped in front of a door. Several familiar muffled voices could be heard chattering away inside. And when Ren opened the door to let him in, he saw who it was...

It was the rest of the byte. If it could even be called that anymore, anyway. It could only officially be called a byte if there were eight members… now there were only seven, including him. But the sight of familiar faces was somewhat comforting.

"I'll be right outside, alright?" Ren said to Lucky. 

Lucky gave a small nod back. The brunette smiled, before exiting the room and locking the door, leaving Lucky facing his six other teammates. He took a breath, and made his way to them. At least it wasn’t any of the other W.E.S. members.

The first one to speak was Sakura. She looked up at him, a deep sadness in her dark brown eyes. "We heard what happened to Jazz…" She said solemnly. "I'm so, so sorry, Lucky." Before he could respond, however, she wrapped her arms around him in a hug.

Lucky was surprised at the sudden embrace, but after a moment he took to process it, he accepted it nonetheless. He tightly wrapped his arms around Sakura, realizing how much he needed a hug. He had the desperate urge and want to cry, but no tears fell from his eyes. Maybe he had run out…

The blonde then felt a hand on his shoulder as he let go of the brunette. “Lucky.”

It was Nightingale. But this time, he was too overwhelmed by sadness to be nervous. He glanced up at his superior, eyes dull. “Yes ma’am…?”

“You know that Jazz was very proud of you, no?”

Lucky blinked. “Y...yeah…”

To his surprise, an almost unnoticeable smile started to tug at the corners of her lips, but soon straightened out. “Good,” She said. “Know that none of this is your fault, understand? It could have been any one of us that died.”

The blonde hung his head a bit. “I know, ma’am…” He knew it wasn’t his fault. His blame was set on Cub and his colleagues. They refused to help him until they were done with treating their wounded. And yet  _ they _ were playing the innocent card. Maybe Nightingale and the others didn’t know what he knew…

“Your brother was a very brave man,” The woman continued. “One that I’m honored to have fought alongside.”

“Glorious in life, eternal in death.” Synth spoke up, stating the Shadowbyte Army’s famous motto.

Nightingale nodded. “Exactly. He lived as a glorious warrior, and now he will be remembered for many years to come.”

Many of the others gave some sort of a response in agreement, whether it be a simple nod or a word. But even if they were small, Lucky felt his heart lift. Jazz would be remembered fondly… as a fine soldier and brother.

Nightingale then removed her hand from his shoulder before speaking again. “But now we need to stay strong. More than ever. For Jazz’s sake.”

Lucky, as much as he knew he already failed that order, nodded anyway. "Yes ma'am…" He shifted his stance a bit, and winced as he felt something inside his boot rub against his ankle. Did he get a rock stuck in there somehow? He moved his foot again. The object was smooth, cold, and hard. Like metal.

Metal.

A sudden memory popped into his mind, and his eyes went wide. He still had the gun he had grabbed tucked inside his boot. How?

“Lucky?” Synth’s voice pierced his conscience, making him flinch a bit. “You in there?”

Lucky was still in shock at what he had discovered. “U-uhh…” As nervous as he was with everyone’s eyes now trained on him, he knew he had to say something. So he went down on one knee, stuck his hand down his boot, and, like a magician with a rabbit and a hat, yanked his pistol out. “I...I-I still have my gun…”

Coda’s eyes widened as he stood up. “Wait techie, you got a gun too? When the fuck did ya grab that?!”

Lucky shrunk back a bit at Coda’s voice loudening. “B-before we left the Hive… I didn’t use it though…” His voice trailed off as he realized one small but important detail she had dropped into her sentence. “...w-what do you mean by ‘you too’?”

The creeper grinned. “They might’ve taken away our hacks and main weapons…” She then knelt onto one knee and pulled up the hem of her pant leg. Tucked inside her boot was a sleek black and red pistol, just like Lucky’s. “But those fuckers didn’t bother to pat us down.”

Sakura’s eyes lit up with hope. “Does that mean we have a chance of going home?” She asked, leaning closer to the green-scaled woman.

“You know it, baby!” Coda answered confidently. "We're home free-"

Synth then spoke, cutting off his friend. "Don't get ahead of yourself, Coda," He said, lowering his voice slightly. "It won't work if you're screaming from the rooftops about it. And we need to make a plan."

“He’s right,” Grey replied. Nix nodded alongside him. “We need to be smart about this. This might be our only shot out of here.”

“Agreed.” Nightingale added. “We have one chance. There’s  _ no _ margin for error.”

As the conversation buzzed around him, Lucky retreated back into his mind and gazed at the pistol in his hands. A chance at escape? It was wholeheartedly possible. He could go home to Fort Oblivion, go back to his bunker, with all of his high tech gear and a legitimate excuse to not leave-

But this time, he wouldn't have an older brother to turn to when he needed it.

Dark thoughts clouded Lucky's mind. Why should he bother? What was the point of leaving now? Jazz was his whole entire world, the only family he ever had, and now he was dead… 

Maybe he could escape in a different way. Escape that hellhole and reunite with his brother. Put that gun against his head and fire it for the first and last time in his life. 

Was it cowardly? Yes. Desperate? Most definitely. Stupid? Yup. But did he care? 

Not one single bit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! I just wanna say thank you to all of the support and love you all have been giving this story; it really warms my heart! :D
> 
> Also! If you have any questions, in terms of lore or you're just plain ol' curious, please feel free to comment down below, or go send me an ask on my Tumblr page, @FoxyNinjaBear ! I'm curious as to what you all have to say! :)
> 
> \- Foxy


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also available on Wattpad and Tumblr!
> 
> (Quick note: Sorry about the length of this one. It's longer than I'd like it to be ;-;)

**Sakura**

“Bloom.”

Sakura faintly heard her code name being said, muffled by the grogginess of sleep clouding her brain. “Hmm...?”

“Bloom, it’s the morning.” The voice repeated. “And it’s time to meet up with your friends.”

The brunette cracked open her eyes a bit, and glanced over at where she presumed the door was. Her vision blurred as her surroundings got further and further away; she needed her glasses. She patted around her nightstand, felt for her glasses, and slipped them onto the bridge of her nose.

At the door was a familiar blonde man in a brown shirt, with bluish, almost purple eyes. He was introduced to her a few days prior; Zedaph, she believed his name was. He wasn't too bad. He was laid back, a decent person, and although a bit odd, he wasn't awful.

But a small thought crossed her mind for a moment. Why did he know her code name? She had never said anything before then. Not in her interrogation, not to any of the W.E.S. operatives. Nobody.

A familiar memory then popped into the brunette’s mind. Not long after her and every other member of the byte had met up, Lucky admitted that he had been forced to identify all members of the byte. But on the bright side, he had only used aliases, so their actual names weren’t revealed. That’s why Zedaph had called her Bloom.

Sakura sat up from her bed and yawned. “Alright…” She said, before taking the blanket off of her bed and wrapping around herself.

Zedaph raised a brow at the brunette. "Why are you bringing a blanket?" He asked.

She glanced up at the blonde and shrugged. "It's freezing down here," She answered, yawning a bit. "And I'm tired…"

The man was quiet for a moment, pursing his lips in thought. "...Alright." He answered, giving her a nod. "Now c'mon."

The brunette slowly stood up from her bed, shuffling over to the door and exiting her cell-like room. Alongside Zedaph, she waddled down the hallway, rubbing her tired eyes and wrapping the blanket further around her body as she shivered.

"I mean, you weren't wrong when you said it was cold down here," Zedaph said, chuckling a bit and wrapping his arms around himself. “I’m getting goosebumps myself!”

Sakura smiled a bit and laughed back. "Yeah…" 

However, her smile soon faded with the sound of their soft chuckles. It might have been true that the underground bunker was chilly, even though it was the summertime. But it wasn’t her intention to keep warm. The blanket was only part of a plan.

A massive plot to break out and escape.

Before she knew it, she and Zedaph had arrived at the ‘meeting room’. In reality, it was more like a supply closet that had been emptied of everything except the unbearable amount of dust floating around. But is was better than nothing.

The blonde opened the door and allowed Sakura to walk inside. To her dismay, she saw that everyone else apart of her team was there before her. They must have been waiting on her again. She didn’t know the exact distance her cell was from the meeting room, but she could easily assume that it was the farthest out of everyone else’s.

But she didn’t have time to complain or apologize. They all had to get work done.

Sakura waited for Zedaph to lock the door, and once his footsteps echoed into silence, she opened her mouth to speak. “Okay, so what does everyone have?”

Everyone was silent for a second. But then Nix raised his hand, before he tossed something into the air in Sakura’s direction. Once the brunette caught it, she realized what it was, and her brown eyes widened; duct tape. Three brand new rolls of multicolored duct tape, still encased in their clear plastic packaging. 

She lifted her eyes back up to the young medic, amazed. “Nix, where did you find this?” She asked. 

Nix said nothing. He only shrugged and gestured to the door with his thumb. But Sakura did manage to see a small smile pulling at the corners of his lips. 

Either way, she was happy about what the medic had to offer. "Thank you, Nix. This will be _ very _ useful," She said, before shifting her gaze to the remaining members of the group. "Anyone else?"

"Yeah," Grey nodded, before tossing a bundle over to her. “All I got was a bedsheet,” He said, frowning a bit. "Sorry, kiddo."

Instead, Sakura smiled and shook her head. "No, this will do nicely," She assured as she tucked the roll under her mechanical arm. "Thank you, Grey." She then shifted her focus onto the rest of the byte. "Do any of you have anything else?"

Most of her colleagues shook their heads or said something along the lines of 'No'. But Coda, instead of having everyone else's reaction, she flashed a proud, sharp-toothed smile.

"I thought you'd never ask," She stated. "I managed to get somethin' fuckin' _ sweet _. But I did have to hide it in an…" She then reached her hand up to grasp the zipper on her jumpsuit. "Interesting way."

It took a moment for Sakura to realize what Coda meant. And once she did, she felt her face turn a bright shade of red. "O-oh gosh…!" 

Coda burst out laughing as the brunette averted her gaze and shielded her eyes with her hands. “Aww, don’t be shy!~”

Nightingale let out an annoyed sigh. “Just get it over with and show us what you have, Coda.”

“Yes, ma’am~”

“And keep it clean!”

Sakura could hear a zipper being undone, some cloth rustling, and then the zipper zipping back up. “A...are you done…?” She asked, her cheeks still burning.

“Yeah,” Coda replied, and the brunette sighed in relief. “You can turn ‘round now.”

Sakura hesitantly removed her hands from her face to look back at the creeper, and she saw two things. One, she indeed had her jumpsuit zipped back up, which Sakura was more than happy about. And two, to her amazement, Coda had something that would be more than useful; one of the metal trays that the W.E.S. employees were using to serve food.

The brunette’s eyes weren’t the only ones wide in shock. Synth, for example, appeared as if his jaw would drop to the floor at any moment. "How in the _ world _ did you manage to not draw any suspicion?" Synth asked.

Coda shrugged and smiled a bit. "Eh, I've got one of the stupid ones bringin' me meals.” She answered, handing off the tray to Sakura. “Guy forgets to take the tray back half the time. He barely even noticed that one went missing." 

The redhead chuckled. “Which one?”

“The toothpick. With the moustache.” Coda laughed back, grinning more. “And he’s already terrified of me, so I sorta have free reign over ‘em.”

Grey sighed and shook his head back and forth. “You really won’t ever change, will you kid?”

The creeper rolled her eyes at her mentor, but still had a smile on her lips. “Would you ever want me to?”

The older man chuckled. “I don’t think it’s even possible at this point.”

Several chuckles sounded out throughout the room, and more conversations arose among most of the soldiers. Even Sakura herself was starting to talk, after hiding the metal tray beneath her blanket. She could honestly get used to the chatter. Even though she barely knew those people, she was growing somewhat fond of them-  
  
Three loud raps suddenly sounded on the door, silencing everyone immediately. “Twenty minutes are up!” A man’s voice sounded out. She knew it belonged to the man that seemed to be made entirely out of slime (she didn't question it; she had seen enough weird people in the time of the byte arriving in that World), but what was his name again? Jevin?

“Aw, c’mon jelly bean!” Coda groaned in annoyance. Sakura couldn’t help but let out a small giggle at the fitting nickname. “Can’t y’hear we’re having fun in here?”

“You’ve gotten used to the limit by now!” The man replied, ignoring the creeper’s remark. “Time to get out!”

Sakura sighed, holding her contraband close to her blanketed figure. “Alright…” She walked towards the door, but glanced back towards her teammates and gave them a smile. “See you all tomorrow.” She said, before walking out the door with her precious cargo.

She glanced around at the group of people outside the door. The usual escorts were there, one (or sometimes two) for each of her colleagues. Among them was the man assigned to her; Zedaph. 

“You still cold?” He asked as the two started to walk off down the halls.

Sakura made a small pouty face. She had to keep up the act. “It’s chilly!”

The blonde laughed. “Okay, okay!” He replied.

The two didn’t exchange many more words before they finally arrived at Sakura’s cell. “I’ll be back in about an hour with your breakfast, alright?” He said, opening the door and letting the shorter woman inside.

Sakura gave a small smile and nodded. “Alright. See you then.”

As she turned around, she heard the door close behind her with a long _ creak _ and a _ click _, signifying it had been locked. She continued to stand still for a moment and waited for Zedaph's footsteps to fade away. She knew she couldn't risk anything.

Soon, there was nothing but total silence. Silent enough for her ears to ring. She glanced over her shoulder one more time, before sitting down, taking off her blanket, and spreading out the supplies she was given.

And she _ immediately _ started to grow uneasy at the task before her.

Sakura gazed at all of the materials set out in front of her and bit her nails. What was she supposed to do with a flimsy metal tray, a bedsheet, and duct tape?

Knowing she had to start somewhere, she took the tray in her hands and attempted to bend it. To her pleasant surprise, it started to fold with relative ease. As easy as it could possibly be to fold a sheet of shaped metal. Maybe she _ could _ use those after all…

The woman looked back down at the cloth and tape next to her. Ideas started flowing into her head, one after the other, and a small smile crept up onto her lips. She knew _ exactly _ what she could do.

"Alright, Sakura…" She muttered to herself. "You have made it this far… time to make the final stretch." She rubbed her hands together and rolled up her torn and dirty sleeves.

Time to get to work.

~~~~~

Sakura rubbed her eyes and yawned. She had been up for (what she presumed to be) most of the day and the night, tinkering and experimenting with her mismatched supply of contraband in between the times that Zedaph had delivered her meals. Her natural hand was starting to form a couple blisters from all of the work she was doing. Not to mention all of the small scrapes and cuts she had along her palm that stung every time she flexed her fingers.

But her hard work was definitely paying off. Laid out on the tile in front of her were several makeshift knives. Seven, to be exact. Their jagged blades were fashioned out of the food tray (after she had finally managed to fold it enough so it would break), and their handles were made from torn scraps of the bedsheets and the tape.

She had a remaining scrap of the bedsheet left, so to keep all of the shivs in one place, she decided to wrap them all up into one small parcel. A tired sigh of relief escaped her lips, and she shuffled over to her bed and collapsed. Her eyelids drooped and got heavier and heavier, and she slipped closer and closer into dreamland-

“Bloom? You awake?”

Zedaph’s voice made her snap her eyes wide open in an instant. She almost jumped right out of her bed from the surprise, and nearly dropped her bundle of knives onto the floor. “Wh-what…?”

Zedaph spoke again. “It’s morning.”

“A...already?” Sakura asked, trying to sit up without revealing her contraband. She tried to yawn to make it seem like she had just woken up.

“Yup. Time for you to meet up with the others.”

“J...just one second…!” She stuttered out, trying her best to add in another fake yawn to her speech. She held the bundle close and wrapped her blanket around herself to conceal it. “Alright, ready.” She then stood up from her bed and shuffled out of her room, holding her parcel close as she tagged alongside the blonde.

To her relief, Zedaph didn't seem to suspect a thing as they walked. He appeared just as tired as she was, perhaps even more. But then again, Sakura could easily assume that just about every single W.E.S. operative in the World was, at that point. She didn’t know how much time had passed since the massive battle between them and the rest of her fellow soldiers, but it had been long enough to where everyone seemed to be losing sleep.

The blonde led Sakura to the ‘meeting’ room, and let her in without a hitch. “Twenty minutes as always,” He yawned. “Have fun.”

The brunette nodded and smiled at Zedaph, before he closed the door behind her and locked it. She turned back to her fellow soldiers, who had all, once again, arrived before she had. However, at that point, none of them (including herself) seemed to care at that point. They were all dirty, weakened, and determined to go home.

Coda was the first to speak, lowering her voice a bit and leaning closer to Sakura. “You got the goods?” She asked.

Synth let out a snort. “You make it sound like she’s dealing crack, geez.”

“Shut the fuck up, Synth,” The creeper rolled her eyes and playfully shoved her friend. "But really, you got somethin’ we can use?"

Sakura nodded, and pulled out the small bundle from inside her blanket. “I made seven. One for each of us.” She pinched a corner of the bedsheet and unraveled the parcel to reveal the hastily made knives. 

Coda’s eyes locked on the blades with interest. “Holy shit…” She said. Her jet black gaze shifted upwards to Sakura. “You made these? In just a few hours?”

The brunette gave a sheepish smile back. “Well, it wasn’t just a few hours… I've been up since yesterday-”

“These are fuckin’ _ amazing _!”

The creeper cut her off and snatched one of the knives in Sakura’s hands. “Sure, they would look shitty as fuck to anybody else, but they aren’t!” She grinned at the shorter woman. “A lot better than I could do.”

Synth raised an eyebrow. “Since when did you know how to make a shiv?”

Coda glanced over at her friend. “Does it surprise ya?”

The redhead let out a chuckle. “Point taken.”

“N..not to be mean, but…” Lucky’s quiet voice then sounded, drawing the group’s attention to him. He made a timid gesture to the blades. “H...how do you know that they’re good? They look like they would do more scratching than cutting…”

Coda’s lips pressed into a firm line. “Watch ‘n learn, techie.” Before anyone could object, she took her blade and pressed the tip against her scaled finger. Just as she did, a small, emerald green bubble formed. “See? It’s damn sharp! If it can get through my scaly ass skin that easily, then it can get through anybody else's like it’s fuckin’ _ butter _.”

The shorter blonde was obviously taken aback by the creeper’s sudden action. “D...did you just stab your finger?”

“Yeah, I fuckin’ stabbed my finger. So what-”

“We’re getting off track.”

Nightingale’s cold voice pierced the air and filled it with silence. “We need to make the most of these twenty minutes. We _ cannot _ waste them.”

Lucky flinched back a bit. “Y-yes ma’am…!”

Coda was quiet, but soon spoke. “Yes, boss…”

“Good. Now, remember our plan,” Nightingale started, her dark gaze shifting from person to person. “We take out every threat we find, quickly and quietly. We _ cannot _ draw attention to ourselves. If you need to spill some blood, do what you must. Just make it discreet. And while at it, you make your way around to meet up with your partners at your discussed locations.”

“Once we have everyone incapaciated and have all found each other, we close in on Xisuma,” The ebony woman continued. “And we must be just as careful taking him down as with the others. You all have seen how powerful he is; one slip up and we’re all done for. Once he’s dead, we can get our equipment back and call for an extraction.”

Nightingale’s eye landed on Lucky, and Sakura could have sworn she saw that her gaze had softened for a moment. “And Lucky. We’ll get the extraction team to find Jazz and bring him home. Alright?”

The short blonde lifted his head from the floor, locking his bloodshot eyes on her. “Yes ma’am…”

A moment of somber silence passed. It was still hard for Sakura to believe that one of her teammates was dead. Sure, she had been sent out on missions before, and her other colleagues hadn't made it back to Fort Oblivion alive, but this was different. From what she gathered in the short time she knew him, Jazz was both strong and smart. A prime example of someone who could have been a skilled and admirable commander one day. Not someone who would have their life cut short by hacker powerful enough to leech.

At least he would be remembered as a hero. A strong, dedicated soldier who fought to the bitter end. She was happy that Lucky would have that to comfort him.

“And on a side note," Nightingale gently broke the silence after what seemed like ages. "There’s no need to call me ‘ma’am’ anymore.”

Sakura blinked, confused. What did she mean? She was technically the leader of the byte; she had to be respected as such.

“We’ve all been placed at the same level here,” Nightingale continued. “So Angel will do just fine.”

The brunette tilted her head slightly. Angel. If she had to be one hundred percent honest with herself, she was expecting something much less...dainty? Elegant? She didn't quite know how to describe it. Sure, her surperior's code name was Nightingale, but that was just it; a code name. An alias.

"And personally," The woman spoke again, further gaining Sakura's curiosity of the sudden request. A small smile then tugged at the corners of her dark lips. "You have all gained my respect." Her raven gaze landed on Coda for a moment, before returning to the others. "No matter how much you may get under my skin. You all have proven yourself to be fine soldiers. With what we've faced in the past several days, I would even say that Ecryptos himself would be impressed."

Sakura's eyes widened a bit. Was Nighten- er, Angel, being serious? She didn't know in the slightest. But then again, even in the time she had known her, Sakura had gotten a vibe from the infamous sniper that said she wasn't one for spreading lies.

“Now, are there any questions?” Angel asked out. Silence. “Good.” She glanced over towards the door. Their time was almost up. “Now… Good luck out there. All of you.”

Sakura gave the sniper a salute alongside everyone else. This was it. The escape was going to be set in motion in a matter of hours. 

Now all she had to do was wait.

~~~~~

All was silent as Sakura crept through the hallways, careful not to make a sound. The faint echoes of water dripping and an animal or two scurrying across the dirty tile were all she could hear. It didn’t exactly provide a calm atmosphere, to say the least. Especially when she felt something dart across her boot and she had to suppress the urge to scream and jump where she stood.

But she wasn’t all that surprised that there was the occasional rodent down in that bunker; it was still quite new, and partially under construction from what she could tell. A number of the hallways led to dead ends with dirt piles, some of the walls were just plain gravel or earth, instead of the usual polished stone. And the amount of dust and grime always gathering in the place was a dead giveaway that the bunker was hard to keep clean in some places, primarily the ones that were used the least often.

She started to approach an intersection of hallway. All was still and silent. Too silent. Even if she knew it might have been a good sign, she couldn’t help but feel slightly on edge. 

But she took a breath to reassure herself. Everything had gone alright so far. She had managed to knock Zedaph unconscious with a swift blow to the head when he came in to deliver her dinner; she had managed to build up his trust in her, enough so that she could get him to let his guard down around her. As an extra precaution, she had tied him up with bedsheets. And on top of  _ that _ , nobody had managed to find her yet. She may have felt guilty, but it was what she had to do. All she needed to do now was meet up with Synth outside the infirmary, and everything would be-

Voices echoed from down the hallway. Sakura stopped dead in her tracks, and the hairs on the back of her neck raised. She knew she had to get out of sight, but she was right out in the open! Nothing to hide behind except the corner.

She had to make do with what she had. So she slammed herself against the wall, holding her knife close. She could hear her heart pounding in her ears, feel the sweat dripping down her forehead. All she could do was listen and hope they wouldn’t come far enough down the hallway to spot her.

One voice she immediately recognized. The ultimate target of the whole escape plan; Xisumavoid. “Grian, I told you I’m alright.” He said in an assuring, almost annoyed tone. Like a parent worrying when their child has tripped and scraped their knee, and the child repeatedly telling them that they are okay.

The other voice, presumably belonging to someone named Grian, Sakura didn’t recognize. All she could tell was that it was definitely male. “But X, those bruises on your neck look really bad!” He replied. “Just drink part of a healing potion!”

“The others need them more than I do. I can manage.”

By the sound of his voice, Grian wasn’t having any of it. “You could have been killed by that woman, X! I don’t care if you have those fancy hacker powers; she nearly choked you to death with that wire!”

“But I’m alive,” Xisuma retorted. “And that’s all that matters. So what if I have some purple rings around my neck for a few days?”

Grian huffed. “Okay, fine,” He finally gave in, and a short moment of silence followed. “And X?”

“Yeah?”

Grian was quiet for another second, and a pair of footsteps ceased, presumably his. “...why didn’t you tell any of us that you were a hacker?”

The other set of footfalls stopped, followed by a moment of tense silence. But even if she was scared, Sakura was growing curious of the situation. Xisuma’s colleagues didn’t know he was a hacker? It somewhat made sense; hacking was something that was a very controversial subject to many people in countless Worlds, and as far as Sakura knew, it had been for a long time. Some people were accepting of it, but with how dangerous altering code could be, hackers were often viewed as a danger to both themselves and society.

But Grian didn’t sound mad or disgusted in the slightest. He almost sounded sad, disappointed. As if he thought Xisuma could trust him with any secret, no matter how dark or shameful it could be.

She _ had _ to know what Xisuma’s answer was going to be. Her curiosity was too great, too tempting. Staying as still and as quiet as she could, she continued to listen. 

There was still a tense silence, but soon a sigh from the hacker broke it. “I…” He started, his words trailing off. “I guess because I never thought I would have to tell anyone in the first place.”

Sakura’s curiosity only grew at the response. She had to resist the urge to pop around the corner and ask Xisuma himself. 

“Oh…” That was the only word Grian said for a long moment. “...you know you can tell any of us anything, right?”

“Yeah, I do.”

Grian let out a sigh. “Good.” He said. “Well… I better get back to Cub. He’s still a bit short handed.”

Xisuma chuckled. “See you, Grian.”

A small burst of static sounded followed Xisuma finishing his sentence. He must have teleported somewhere, and hopefully, far enough away for Sakura to continue navigating around the bunker and finding Synth.

Instead of taking her time, like before, she broke out into a swift walk. Still quiet enough to not be detected, but much faster than her former pace. 

And yet she continued to weave through the expanse of hallways and corridors for what felt like hours. Part of her mind was wondering if she was actually headed the right way. Everything looked almost exactly the same; the walls, the tile, the flickering lights. She felt like she was in a cheesy horror movie.

But then she saw something familiar out of the corner of her eye. Or rather, someone. She had nearly passed him as she was walking past a corridor she thought she had already gone through. The redhead was leaning up against a wall, next to a window peering into another room.

Sakura’s eyes widened, and she smiled. “Synth!” She whispered, and dashed over to him as quick as she could. “Sorry, I got lost…” She let out a sigh and wiped some sweat off her forehead. “This place is like a maze!”

The redhead glanced down at her and shook his head. “You’re fine, trust me,” He assured, a charming grin on his face. “But we need to move, and sooner rather than later. Come on.”

Synth then started walking down the hallway, and Sakura followed. But she couldn’t help but glance into the windowed room as she passed by it. She presumed it was the infirmary; there were several people asleep in beds, with various injuries. There were several she recognized right off the bat; Doc, with his broken arm in a sling, and False, who apparently didn’t have any injuries at all, apart from a bruise on the side of her head. But there was one other in a cot, who was almost completely covered in gauze. And he had both an arm _ and _ a leg missing. All she could tell was that he was a red creeper-

Wait. The creeper. She recognized him. It was PythonGB, fierce warrior and former soldier that Lucky identified while everyone was still back at Fort Oblivion. He was also one of the people who tried to get away from her R.O.S.A. before it could detonate.

And now he appeared to be on the verge of death.

Her eyes widened as she gazed at the creeper through the glass. “Did...d-did I do that to him…?” She whispered to herself.

Synth stopped walking. He must have heard her. "Pardon?" He glanced over his shoulder at Sakura. “What was that?”

Sakura decided to play along, and lifted up her cybernetic arm and gestured to Python’s severely injured figure in his bed. “D-did I… did I injure him that badly?”

The taller redhead lifted his grey eyes to where the woman was pointing. “Oh wow…” He replied, sounding genuinely surprised. “He looks worse than the last time I saw him. Last time he had both arms.” 

Sakura’s heart stopped for a moment, her eyes widening. He didn’t lose his arm and leg at the same time? Maybe gangrene had set in to his arm, too much infection to risk keeping the limb. Or it could have been the fact that whoever was doing the amputations couldn’t stomach doing both the leg and the arm at once. The thought of having to cut off a colleague’s dying limbs was one that made Sakura sick.

Synth was silent for a second, as if thinking of a response. “Well, your mech _ did _ explode. Quite violently, as far as I’ve heard. I wouldn’t say that you necessarily made him lose a limb or two, but I will say this.” A small smile spread across his face. “Either way, you helped put him in that bed. And now you’ve made our job _ much _ easier.”

The man’s last words turned the brunette’s heart into lead. The feeling of being weighed down with guilt and shame almost made her feel like she needed to sit down. _ She _ did that to Python… She was the one that accidently activated the self destruct sequence on her R.O.S.A. when its engines went offline. If she hadn’t done that, so many people would have been okay…

Including Jazz.

She saw him retreating with Nightingale before the explosion knocked her unconscious. He should have been safe, given he was outside the immediate blast zone, but it was the resulting shrapnel that killed him. She saw a massive metal plate hit him and practically rip him right open-

"Sakura!"

Synth's harsh whisper made her train of thought come to a screeching halt. “What, what is it?” She whispered back.

The taller man pressed a finger against his lips and signalled her to be quiet. As the air was consumed by the silence, at first she didn’t hear anything. But after a moment, she could just about make out almost inaudible footsteps, the soles of shoes barely squeaking against the tile.

Someone was there.

And Sakura felt like a deer in the headlights as they rounded the corner and stopped where they stood once they saw the two escapees. Standing less than a couple of meters away was a short man in a red shirt, his dirty blonde hair disheveled and messy, and his dark brown eyes wide in shock.

“...uhhhhhh.” Once he let out his surprised reaction, the brunette felt taken aback herself; she recognized his voice from before. The one talking to Xisuma. It was Grian.

Synth was quick to act, and he pointed his knife him. “I would advise against trying to scream and run,” He stated calmly. “Now, just come over here, and you might live to see another day.”

The blonde was still in a silent shock for one more moment, but soon shook his head and cleared his throat. “Look, we don’t need to fight,” He said, holding his palms out. “Just slide the knives over and-”

A soft _ click _ sounded through the air, and Grian froze where he stood. A new voice sounded from behind him, one that Sakura could recognize immediately. A woman, harsh and confident in her words.

“You move, I’ll blow your fuckin’ brains out. Gottit?”

Coda! 

A feeling of relief washed over the brunette. Thank goodness! A smile spread across her face as she saw the creeper step slightly out from behind Grian, her gun still trained on his head.

“On your knees,” The creeper growled. “And hands over your head. _ Now _.”

“Okay, okay, alright!” The shorter man stated, before slowly beginning to lift his hands upwards.

“Good choice, blondie.” Coda grinned, and she reached her hand forward, presumably to grab the man.

But just before she could do anything, Grian suddenly spun around to throw a punch at Coda. His fist planted right on her jaw with a loud _ crack _, causing her to stumble back.

“GAH!” Coda rubbed the side of her face, dark green blood now dribbling out of her mouth and down her chin. She looked back over at Grian and spat in his direction. “You lil’ son of a…!”

She nearly fell as the blonde charged at her, trying to snatch the gun out of her hand. But to Sakura’s surprise, Coda roughly grabbed his arm and, like he weighed absolutely nothing, flung him against the wall, before pinning him there by both shoving her forearm onto his throat and jabbing the barrel of her pistol on his side.

Coda grinned at her success, and jammed the gun further against her opponent’s stomach. "Y'know… it's a good thing you're wearin' red," She said, gesturing to his red sweater. She leaned closer to his face and smiled wider, not afraid to show off her now blood coated teeth. "It'll hide the stains~"

Grian gasped in pain as the creeper pressed her pistol harder against him, but he kept his dark brown gaze locked on her. “I’m not afraid of you,” He stated.

Sakura could have sworn that she saw Coda’s grin falter for a split second. "Uh huh. _ Sure _." The soldier said, sarcasm dripping from her words. She kept her gun trained on him. “Y’wanna make a bet on it, blondie?”

The blonde’s expression remained the same; unafraid. “Then go ahead. Shoot me.” He stated, leaning his face closer to hers. “I already told you that I’m not scared. Of _ any _ of you, for that matter.”

A sinking feeling began to form in Sakura’s stomach. What was Grian doing? Sure, he was an enemy, but she knew antagonizing Coda wasn’t good at all. She had seen it happen back at the Hive, but Synth had managed to drag her away before she could do anything to Jazz. Now Coda had a gun… and that combined with a short temper was a recipe for disaster.

And to her horror, her prediction was correct. Just as Grian opened his mouth to say something, the creeper suddenly yanked him by the shirt collar and threw him onto the floor before he could finish. She then sent her foot towards him, kicking him in the stomach. A loud _ crack _ could be heard along with Grian's cry of pain.

"Coda!" Sakura cried out, and rushed over to her to try and pull her away. "Just calm down!" She grasped her arm and tried to tug her away, but the creeper didn't budge, and continued to repeatedly pummel Grian with a series of hard kicks.

Synth apparently had the same goal in mind. "Coda, _ calm down _ !" Synth demanded, dashing over to his friend and wrapping his arms around her. "We _ cannot _ reveal where we are!" He hissed, pulling her away from the beaten man on the floor.

Coda continued to glare daggers at the blonde as she spoke. “If this prick would shut the _ fuck _ up, then maybe I’d stop!”

Sakura nervously glanced down at Grian on the floor. He was glaring up at the three soldiers, his breathing labored. “Xisuma… is gonna find you…” He said, his eyes filled with anger. “All of you… every one of you in your little Shadowbyte Army-”

Sakura reeled back and shrieked as Coda’s gun suddenly went off with an ear shattering _ BANG _. She heard Grian scream out in pain just as dozens of crimson flecks sprayed over her face and the cracked lenses of her glasses. Blood.

"Coda, what the hell?!" Synth demanded, grabbing her shoulder and roughly turning her to face him. "You just blew our position!"

"They know who we are, dude!" Coda exclaimed, sounding like she barely cared about the fact that she just shot someone. After a split second, her coal black eyes then shined with a red hot fury. As if she realized something in her head. "Of course… that fuckin' techie! He's a fuckin' _ snitch _ !!" She growled and stomped once on the tile. "I swear, I'm gonna beat the _ shit _ outta that kid once I get a hold of 'em!"

Sakura immediately knew who she was talking about. Lucky. Did he reveal anything during the interrogation besides everyone's code names? Somebody from the byte must have; Grian (or anybody else, for that matter) wouldn’t have known otherwise.

But she didn’t have time to stand and question. Before she could say anything, Synth had grabbed her hand and forced her to break out into a run. “Come on!” He ordered. “We need to get out of here, _ NOW _!”

“O-okay, okay!” She managed to spit out a couple of words as she started to move alongside him and Coda. However, she couldn’t help but glance back at Grian as she was running. He was sprawled out on the floor and clutching his side, blood pouring out of his gunshot wound and steadily pooling beneath him.

But it was his screaming that made her almost stop. 

Almost.

She knew she couldn’t stop running. As much as she wanted to, Grian was the enemy. And there was no way she could help him, even if it weighed her down with more guilt.

Sakura turned her eyes away from the man on the floor as she rounded a corner. She nearly slipped in a puddle of water and had to stumble while she ran to regain her balance. Voices bounced and echoed off the walls and the tile. The voices of the HermitCraft members. Yelling. Screaming. Crying.

But the woman kept running. She kept her eyes wide open. She didn't care how tired she was. She wanted, no, _ needed _ to escape-

And then she saw someone. Somebody that wasn't Coda or Synth. But it wasn't an enemy; it was a friend. As she and her two colleagues went around another corner, she saw a grey-haired man, also running. His tattered white jumpsuit stood out against the darkness of the hallway.

Grey.

"Old man!" Coda called and dashed over to run alongside him, Sakura and Synth following behind. “Wait, where’s the boss lady and your side kick?"

“Coda! You made it!” The man exclaimed as the group of four continued to dash through the halls. “I thought I was the only one! I got separated from Nix and Angel a while back. I thought they’d meet me up here, but none of them showed.”

Sakura’s eyes widened a bit. There was one person not accounted for. “Where’s Lucky?” She huffed out. “You haven’t seen him?”

“What?” Grey asked. “No, I thought you guys would’ve!”

“No time for questions!” Synth interrupted the conversation. "Right now we have to run!"

Sakura could barely tell where she and her three colleagues were headed. Everything was flying by so fast, too quick to make out any landmarks. If that were even possible, in that labyrinth of a bunker. How did the members of HermitCraft even get around without getting lost?

The brunette was about to try and speak her mind when she finally recognized something; the grand set of stairs that led up to the surface. She could almost feel her heart explode with happiness as the group and her ran up the stairs and burst through the doors, into the compound.

She and the rest of her group ran past the many buildings, past the compound wall, and into the massive field. She could just about see a massive crater not too far away, the ground and grass charred black. Her stomach churned; she knew exactly what had happened in that place. But then she lifted her head to the sky…

And saw sunlight. Warm, beautiful sunlight from the rising sun on the horizon. Sakura had to resist the urge and want to stop running and lay down on the grass, cherish and embrace the moment.

But she couldn’t stop running. Not with everything that was on the line.

“There!” Coda stated out, and Sakura snapped her brown gaze towards the creeper. “Head towards the woods!” She had her hand pointing out, where a large line of trees could be seen, easily within running distance. As if they were all in sync, a single unit, everyone made the sharp turn and ran into the forest and among the trees and brush.

Now, Sakura wasn't afraid to admit that she was plump. She didn't care that much about her weight, in terms of looks; she just had always been this short and round person, no matter how much she exercised and trained. Plus, she had grown to think of herself as cute, weight regardless. But in terms of athletics, a thing she never really had to worry about once she gained her position in the Army's Engineering division, she _ definitely _ knew her weight and body type wasn't exactly ideal.

Especially when she tripped and tumbled over a large tree root. One that had easily been avoided by her three (and much more athletic) colleagues.

"Woah!" The brunette cried out in surprise as she fell and slammed into the ground. Immediately a sharp, stabbing pain shot through her ankle, and a loud _ crack _sounded out. “Owowowowowowooowwww!”

Not a moment after her cry of pain, she heard footsteps rapidly approach her, twigs and sticks cracking and snapping. “Oh shit!” To her relief, it was Coda’s voice. “Hold on, I gotcha!”

Sakura lifted her head up, and sure enough, Coda was right at her side and kneeling down. "C'mon, gimme your arm," She said, before firmly grasping her mechanical hand and started helping her to her feet.

The brunette heard more footsteps as Coda wrapped her cybernetic arm over her shoulders. "Kid! You alright? Can you walk?" She heard Grey ask.

She looked up at the man and shook her head. "I-I don't know…" She said. "I can try- OW!" But as she tried to put weight on her injured ankle, another wave of pain washed over her.

"Yeah, you ain't walkin'," Coda stated, shaking her head.

"But-"

"Nope! C'mon, up y'go!"

Before Sakura could respond, Coda suddenly scooped her up off the ground and held the brunette in her arms. "H-hey! Put me down! I can-"

"Both of you, just _ stop _!"

The two women were silenced by Synth raising his voice, so much so it almost sounded threatening. Sakura shifted her brown eyes to the man, who had a grim expression on his face.

"Coda," He started. "You're right. Sakura is in no position to be running. But you and Grey need to move further ahead. Sakura and I can meet up with you later."

Coda's pitch black eyes went wide. "What?! Dude, there's no _ fuckin' _ way I'm leavin' anybody here!" Coda stated. "Nobody’s gettin' left behind!"

Synth shook his head. "We _ have _ to split up, Coda!" He countered. "The W.E.S. members can only spread themselves out so far! This is our _ only _ shot for all of us getting out of here!" He then placed a hand on her shoulder, giving her a nod and a smile. Not his signature sly, almost sinister grin. This one looked gentle, much more friendly. "And besides, we'll be right behind you."

Coda was silent, her lips pressed into a firm line. But after a moment, she lifted her eyes back up and spoke. "Y'better be." She stated, before gently setting Sakura back down on her feet. “If ya aren’t, I’m gonna kick your ass.”

The redhead laughed, removing his hand from her shoulder. “Good luck,” He glanced over at Grey and nodded. “Both of you.”  
  
“You too, kiddo,” Grey said, before he and Coda turned around and made their way further into the woods, and not a moment later, disappeared among the trees and foliage.

Sakura and Synth were completely on their own now.

“Here, come on,” Synth held his hand out to Sakura. They had to keep moving. “Let me help you.”

The brunette flinched in pain as she tried to move, but soon grasped Synth’s hand, and allowed him to hoist her mechanical arm over his shoulders, just like Coda had. It may have been a little awkward, given the major height difference between the two, but they still managed to make it work. 

"Thank you, Synth…" Sakura said, whimpering a bit as they both began to walk.

Synth looked down at the woman and smiled. "No need to thank me," He replied. "We're in this together-"

A bright flash of pixels suddenly appeared before them, and Sakura squeezed her eyes shut as she shrieked. What was that? A glitch? The World was still quite young… it wouldn't be much of a stretch for that to happen.

But once she opened her eyes, her heart dropped. Standing in front of her and Synth was none other than the one they meant to take out in the first place, flanked by two people armed with guns that obviously belonged to the Shadowbyte soldiers; Jazz's shotgun and Synth's assault rifle. A gleaming sword was grasped in the armored man's hand, and his eyes were locked on the pair.

It was Xisumavoid. And he had found them.

“Bloom, Mimic,” Xisuma started. He took a small step forward towards the pair of escapees. “Just drop the knives, okay? Give me the knives.”

Sakura’s eyes darted around in a panic, and she clutched her shiv tighter. There _ had _ to be a way out of that situation. They could run away- no, Xisuma could teleport, and the two people next to him had guns. Maybe they could try and fight- no, that wouldn’t be smart either! She couldn’t even run! What could they do?!

Her mind continued to race, and every idea she came up with sounded more ludicrous than the last. She had to come up with something. Anything! But soon, a grim realization crept into her mind.

They failed. _ She _ failed. _ Failed _. As a soldier, as a colleague… 

A sad sigh escaped her mouth. She really _ did _ have no other choice, didn't she? So, full of regret and shame, she closed her eyes and tossed the makeshift blade onto the dirt at Xisuma's feet.

It was over.

~~~~~

There was a tense and awkward silence in the stuffy air. Xisuma had taken Sakura back down into the bunker, but to her surprise, he didn’t take her to her cell. Instead, he took her straight to the infirmary and let her sit down on an empty bed. At that moment, he was wrapping up her ankle in thick white gauze, which she found extremely odd.

It didn’t exactly help that half of the people in the room were throwing weird or dirty glances in her direction.

Not much had changed since the last time she had seen the infirmary. All she noticed was that Grian was there now, and thankfully alive. He appeared to be unconscious in one of the beds, his torso completely wrapped in bandages. A small crimson stain could be seen slowly blooming through the white gauze covering his side. Several empty glass bottles lay on the metal table next to his bed, filled with the faint residue of a glowing pinkish red liquid. Healing or regeneration potions, perhaps. And a _ lot _ of them.

A small question formed in her mind, and she became slightly confused. Xisuma was a hacker… and he had the ability to heal himself, as far as she knew. Coda shoved a sword right through his _ heart _, and yet he survived. Why wasn’t he healing the others? He didn’t have to use potions and brews.

She thought that maybe he could only use invincibility hacks. But she soon realized an immediate contradiction with that. Invincibility hacks were based on healing hacks. A hack that branched off of another, in a sense. He had to have learned to heal before he could make himself temporarily immortal. It didn’t make sense.

But Sakura had to shake the question out of her mind. She had things right in front of her to focus on. Much more important things. Like the fact that the one who was supposedly her enemy was attempting to patch up her broken ankle.

Why would Xisuma do that? He may not have killed any of her teammates, but it was still odd. Maybe he just wanted them all alive in order to press charges once he was able to contact the authorities in outside Worlds. There were so many questions, and yet so few answers. 

She  _ needed _ answers. Answers made her feel more at ease. She wanted to try and ease the tension, as well. To her, conversation was the best form of therapy.

The brunette cleared her throat. "So… you know who we are, don't you?" She asked.

Xisuma remained silent, and his posture went rigid at the mere mention of the secretive army. His hands stopped working on Sakura's ankle. "...yes. We do." He eventually spoke, almost sounding like he was trying to hold back his anger, and he went back to dressing the woman's wound.

Sakura didn’t exactly blame him for being mad. She knew what her and the rest of the byte had done; injured many of his colleagues (including himself), put several lives on the line, caused countless amounts of damage. The list went on.

And she felt horrible for it.

She couldn’t help but feel guilty for her role in the chaos. _ She _ let her mech explode. _ She _ knew she already took one life; and with how Python was, there was the possibility of her taking another. There was no way he could survive without more people giving him medical assistance.

...and then an idea came to her mind. "C...can I ask you something?"

Xisuma didn't return his gaze. However, he still spoke. "Yes. You may." He said.

Sakura gulped and cleared her throat. “I-it’s… it’s about one of your colleagues… Python.” She started. “I… I think I can help him.”

This time, the hacker glanced over at her. His brows were furrowed, confused by her statement. “What do you mean?”

The brunette was silent for a moment. Should she really do this? Her doing what she was about to do could have dire consequences. Perhaps not with Xisuma and his colleagues, but with her own. Angel, Synth, Nix, Grey, everyone. 

But even if Xisuma and the other W.E.S. operatives were technically considered the enemy, she didn’t mean for this to happen. She couldn’t stand idly by and watch someone die because of something she did. Especially when she knew she could help. Her heart couldn’t take the weight of that much guilt.

"Bloom?" 

Xisuma’s slightly muffled voice drew her back into reality. She _ had _ to make her choice.

Sakura looked back up at the green-armored hacker, took a breath, and pointed to the cog patch on her dirty and torn up jumpsuit with a mechanical finger. "I work with cybernetics. A lot. I make them, design them, install them. And from what I saw, Python needs good ones, and quick."

Part of her mind was screaming at her, demanding what she was doing, demanding she stay with where her loyalties resided. She made an oath to the Shadowbyte Army, to Ecryptos, the day of her enlistment. She could remember every line, every word, every sentence she said like it only happened yesterday. After all, she stood face to face with the legendary general, like every other recruit would on their own day of enlistment. It helped make the words stick. Especially the most important part of the whole entire thing...

_ “I, SakuraDot, hereby pledge that under any circumstances, I will remain loyal to my fellow soldiers and General of the Shadowbyte Army, Ecryptos.” _

Now she was on the verge of breaking that oath. But part of her was somewhat accepting of that fact. Since there was absolutely no chance of escaping now and her identity as a Shadowbyte soldier had been revealed, she figured she might as well try and do the right thing, according to _ her _ morals. To try and make up for the thing she regretted so deeply.

So she took a breath, opened her mouth, and took the plunge. “I want to help you save Python.”

The whole room went silent at her statement, and she saw several pairs of eyes lock onto her. Even Xisuma was staring in shock.

"...I'm sorry, what?" The hacker asked, obviously taken aback. 

Sakura repeated herself. "I want to help you."

"But… _ why _ ?" A new voice spoke up. It was Doc, all the way on the other side of the room. "Why the _ hell _ would you want to help us?! You and your buddies just tried to _ kill _ us a few days ago!"

"He's right!" Another person, False, spoke next. She had her blue eyes locked on Sakura. "Because of you, we're all stuck in this mess! And one of us is on the verge of _ dying _!" She gestured to Python in his bed. "What makes you think we're going to trust-"

"Doc, False, _ please _!"

Xisuma's voice pierced the air, and he flew his hands out. Static burst from his fingertips, and both Doc's and False's voices stopped, even though their lips kept moving. He muted them.

His two colleagues soon realized what had happened, and they stopped their silent ranting. They locked their eyes on him in shock, but he turned his gaze away and returned it to Sakura. "They have a point, Bloom," He said, sighing a bit. "Why would you suddenly want to help us? After what you and the others did?"

The brunette fell silent. She almost didn't want to admit why she wanted to help. What was she supposed to say? That she suddenly had a change of heart and wanted to go to their side? Sure, she felt terrible and caved from the guilt, but deep down, she knew her loyalty to the Army remained intact. Once a Shadowbyte soldier, _ always _ a Shadowbyte soldier.

"...do you really think I have anything else to lose?" She mumbled, just loud enough to be heard. It was the best answer she could come up with.

Xisuma was silent for what felt like minutes. She could feel her heart start to sink. Was he going to reject her offer? 

He then let out a long sigh, making her even more anxious of what he was going to say. "...alright. I believe you. But you're going to be under constant supervision, got it?"

Sakura nodded eagerly. He had agreed! "Yes."

"Good." Xisuma then stood up from the end of the bed and held out a hand for the woman to take. She hesitated for a brief moment at the gesture. But she soon shook off her fear and grasped his hand, and let him help her off the bed and start to hobble over to Python's bed, despite the pain in her ankle.

"He should be waking up soon," The hacker said as they got to Python's bedside. "So you won't have to wait too long." He was silent for a moment, and Sakura realized he was looking down at her injured foot. "I… should probably get you a pair of crutches. I think there's a pair somewhere around here..."

Before she could say anything, the man in green armor suddenly disappeared in a burst of greenish blue pixels, making Sakura jump and let out a shriek. She could feel everyone's disapproving eyes on her, and she _ hated _ it.

Thankfully, not a moment later, Xisuma reappeared, now holding a pair of dusty grey and white crutches. "These should work. They're a bit old, but shouldn't break." He held them out to her, and, wanting relief, Sakura immediately took them into her hands and stood up. They were slightly taller than she would have liked, but they were better than nothing at all.

And it wasn't a moment too soon. Because Sakura heard a brand new voice, and once she turned her head, she saw that Python was beginning to wake up.

The creeper had stirred a bit, and shifted his head to the side. His brows furrowed as he let out a small wince, before his one eye cracked open and landed on Xisuma. "X…?" He asked, his words slurred. "Is that you…?"

Although Sakura couldn’t see most of his face, she saw the corners of Xisuma’s eyes wrinkle a bit, as if he were attempting to smile. “Yeah. How are you feeling, man?” He asked, slowly sitting down next to Python on the bed.

The creeper blinked his remaining eye, and shifted his focus further onto the hacker. “Confused… stupid...” He croaked, before letting out a harsh wince and tensing up. “And in pain… a _ lot _ more pain…”

The wrinkles around Xisuma's eyes smoothed out. His smile had disappeared. "Yeah… the pain killer's probably wearing off by now…" He glanced over to the other side of the room for a moment, at a man with grey hair in a white lab coat. "Cub? You mind giving Python more morphine? If we have any left in the crate over there?"

"No problem, man."

Python glanced at the stump where his missing right arm was as the man named Cub walked over, a large needle filled with a clear liquid in his hand. "...I guess I'm gonna have to also be a leftie now, huh? Not just a crippled?" He gestured to the spot where one of his legs used to be. "Didn't imagine I'd be like this at twenty five…"

The hacker was quiet, but he then cleared his throat. "Not if we can help it," He assured as Cub grasped Python's remaining arm and began feeling for a vein. 

Python cringed as the man in the lab coat stuck the needle in his arm and injected some of the colorless substance. "What do you mean…?" He asked.

Xisuma gestured to Sakura beside him. "This is Bloom. She's going to be helping us make you some cybernetics."

Sakura gave an awkward smile and waved. "Hello."

The red creeper gazed at the brunette for a moment, ignoring Cub as he walked away, before his remaining eye widened a bit. "W-wait…" He started, and his brow furrowed. "She's one of those hackers, isn't she? The ones that came here?" He growled. It was obvious that even in his semi-groggy state, he still had some idea of what was going on around him.

The brunette was about to speak up, but Xisuma cut her off just as she opened her mouth. "Yes, she is," He stated. "But she isn't going to do anything to you. Not under my watch."

"Hmm…" Python lifted his tired eye up to Sakura. He was obviously still suspicious of her. “Well… if you _ do _ try to hurt me, X’ll probably split you in half…” He said, looking off to the side. The hairs on the back of Sakura's neck stood on end at the statement. 

“And I don’t think you want to die… and neither do I, to be fair.” He continued and let out a small laugh, as if trying to lighten the tense mood. The new dose of drugs were starting to take effect. “So I think I can trust you. Whatever you need to do, go ahead.”

The brunette let out an internal sigh of relief. Thank goodness for the morphine; now she could actually help.

"Well… That settles that, then," Xisuma said, catching Sakura's attention. He cleared his throat. “You need anything to get started?”

“Umm… I just need a tape measure and a notepad right now.” She replied, still slightly on edge. “Oh, and a pen, too.”

The hacker nodded, and flicked a gloved hand upwards. Before the woman could even blink, several objects flew past and made her jump, every one ending up in Xisuma’s palm. A small notebook, a black pen, and a length of rolled up tape measure. “Here you are.” He said, holding them out to her. “If you need anything else, just ask me or Cub.” He gestured over to the grey-haired man in the lab coat, now busy tending to Grian.

Still surprised by the sudden display of just how skilled Xisuma was with hacking, she hesitantly took the trio of items into her own hands. “O-of course. Will do.”

As soon as Sakura ended her sentence, Xisuma gave her a nod, before disappearing in a flash of pixels and static. Leaving her all alone with the remaining W.E.S. members.

As nervous as she was, she had to get to work. 

The brunette turned around and went back to Python's bedside, and unravelled the tape measure to measure Python's remaining leg. She needed as much information as possible to make cybernetic limbs and augments that were a perfect fit. Clicking her pen, she wrote the measurement down in her notepad.

"Hey."

Sakura glanced over her shoulder, and saw one of the injured glaring at her. False. "Hmm?"

"You hurt him, and _ I'll _ be the one snapping you in half," The blonde growled, making Sakura stiffen a bit.

"False," Cub spoke out to the woman. It was obvious how tired he was with how he let out a sigh afterwards. "Whether we like her or not, Bloom knows how cybernetics work. Just let her do whatever she has to do."

"What he said!" Python spoke up, his words becoming more slurred from the morphine injection. He then lazily poked Sakura's cybernetic arm. "Besides Falsie, she can just lend me a new hand now! She has one right here! And now I can be cool like Doc, too!"

Sakura let out an accidental chuckle at Python’s loopy behavior. “Just hold still.”

As she continued to take the measurements and notes she needed, her mind began to wander. First, it led her to thinking about Lucky. Why didn't anyone see him during the escape? Did he get caught before he could even attempt to meet up with the others? She could only wonder.

And then her mind travelled to two more people; Coda and Grey. She hadn't seen them since they had split up from her and Synth. She knew for certain that the two soldiers weren't back in the bunker; if they were, she would have heard Coda’s complaining and cursing by now.

As much as Sakura didn't want to admit it, she knew that even if the two soldiers had succeeded in shaking the W.E.S. employees off their tail, there was no chance of them actually escaping the World. Their hacks had been drained, just like everyone else's. And even if they weren't, and they somehow managed to get past the World border and the multiple firewalls beyond it, they had no equipment or weapons to defend themselves with. Given that the massive worm was likely still out there prowling in the Void, they would more than likely be torn to shreds if they came across it.

All she could do was silently hope they would both come back safely. 


	6. Chapter 6

**Nix**

It took Nix a bit to remember what had happened, at first.

He remembered wandering through the bunker alongside Grey and Angel. That was clear as day. The two had broken him out of his cell, all according to what the byte had planned. Then they were sneaking around the maze of hallways to try and meet up with the others.

The events following that were blurry. At some point, he had ended up all alone and was running blindly through the hallways. He had no clue where he was, or where he was headed. Eventually he had formed so much tunnel vision that he didn’t even notice the flight of stairs in front of him until it was too late. He ended up taking a painful tumble down the steps, before ultimately being knocked out cold as he hit his head at the bottom.

And then he had woken up in the infirmary weaponless and alone, Cub wrapping up his several cuts and injuries with gauze.

Since his recapture, Nix hadn’t seen Grey or Angel. Or anyone else, for that matter. But it made sense. If the others had also been apprehended, having them see each other left in the possibility of another scheme being created.

He didn’t even know how long had it been since he had initially escaped from his cell. An hour? Two? Maybe even more than that? He could never tell time for the life of him.

The teen shifted where he sat on the bed and cringed a bit. He knew he needed a shower. And a change of clothes, for that matter; his torn up uniform was caked with dirt, mud, sweat, and who knows what else from the past week. He felt absolutely  _ disgusting _ . 

It didn’t exactly help that his jumpsuit was mostly white, either. He could see so many stains and splatters of all kinds. And he didn’t want to know what they were.

Even if he could easily recognize what the several reddish brown splotches consisted of.

He lifted his gaze up from his lap and took in more of his surroundings. Nothing much had changed since he had last looked. Cub had stepped away and was now scurrying around the room, tending to the many wounded. His main focus was primarily on Python, who seemed to be on the brink of death from the extent of his injuries. The man with grey hair was also treating another man with dirty blonde hair and a red shirt, who appeared to have suffered from a gunshot wound to his side. It must have been either Coda or Lucky that shot him; they were the only ones in the byte with guns at that point.

However, there was one primary difference. There was someone new in the infirmary, a new patient for Cub to tend to. A tall man with ghostly pale skin and black hair was sitting on one of the beds, his brown eyes wide, almost fearful. It was Mumbo Jumbo, the redstone child prodigy turned multimillionaire.

From what Nix could see, Mumbo wasn't in the best of shape, to say the least. He had several bruises, the worst being a massive black eye, all swollen and purple. A nasty, open gash was also right next to the injury, blood steadily dripping down his cheek. It was obvious that he was going to need stitches, and it was highly possible that he had a concussion.

At least Nix knew Coda had landed a few good hits on him. Made sure that he would be out of commission for awhile.

The Shadowbyte soldier continued to keep his dark brown gaze on the former redstone engineer. Mumbo was definitely nervous and scared, due to how he was seemingly trying to distance his mind from everything going on by bouncing his knee up and down, his eyes wide and staring off into empty space. He appeared to not have noticed Cub had come up to him and had begun to attempt to patch up the massive gash on his face.

Nix was convinced of his last assumption when Mumbo suddenly winced and cried out in pain as his wound was touched, and he reeled back from the man in the lab coat. Everyone around him had some sort of physical reaction; they flinched, jumped where they stood or sat, snapped their gazes towards him. The only one who stayed still was Nix himself.

After all, he couldn’t hear Mumbo. Or anything, for that matter.

Nix was able to hear at some point in his life. Up until the time he was about nine or ten years old. But he could never figure out why he had gone deaf. One day he could hear fine, and the next his whole world was silent except for the voice in his own head.

The best explanation he (and many others) could presume was that he had come in contact with some sort of glitch and had his code altered by accident. And the fact that he couldn't remember what happened to him further supported that theory; memory loss was a common side effect of one's code being messed with, in addition to other forms of trauma.

Like going deaf, for example.

Thankfully, he wasn't completely unable to interact with his peers. His hacks were his main method of communication. He would use telepathic hacks in order to 'talk' and 'listen'. They were essentially an equivalent of hearing aids, even if they only allowed him to hear voices. 

On the rare occasion he couldn’t use his hacks due to fatigue or any other reason (or if someone was just plain lazy and didn't want to use telepathic hacks to speak to him), he could rely on his ability to read lips in order to figure out what people are saying. But unfortunately, doing that wasn’t exactly easy; most of the time he had to fill in a few words on his own. 

However, getting his message across without his hacks was a much bigger challenge. He knew how to sign pretty well, which was a plus. But he knew that not a lot of people could sign fluently, especially if they weren't deaf on some level themselves. So more often than not, he had to resort to pen and paper, which he didn't always have access to.

But right there, in that very moment, Nix had nothing. No hacks, no pen and paper. Nothing. He had been completely cut off, save for his signing and lip reading. But that was helpful only if others knew how to sign as well.

And he assumed someone was trying to get his attention, for he felt a hand rest upon his shoulder.

The teen blinked and shifted his gaze away from Mumbo. Looking up, he saw that a new person had entered the room and approached him. A familiar man with dark brown hair and glasses, a set of grey elytra strapped to his back. He recognized him as the W.E.S. associate assigned to him. Joe.

Nix saw Joe's lips start to move, and he tried his best to read them. It frustrated him greatly that he couldn't use his hacks anymore; if he could then the man's phrases would be understood to their full extent. All the teen could make out were three words.

"Time to go."

He let out a soft sigh, and sat up off the bed to stand next to Joe. Of  _ course _ he had to go.

The teen didn't pay any mind to the man as he escorted him out of the room and into the expanse of hallways. He had other things on his mind. Where the rest of the byte was, if they were okay.

And the possible repercussions of trying to escape.

Joe continued to lead Nix down the hallway, and before Nix knew it, he was already back at his cell. And he was more than exhausted at that point. The moment his escort opened the door, he stumbled into his room and fell face first onto his cot.

Now if he could only sleep without the constant wondering of where Grey was buzzing in his head.

~~~~~

Nix must have fallen asleep at some point, for he felt himself begin to wake up at the feeling of his shoulder being gently shaken.

He knew it had to be Joe; who else would it have been? Nobody came into his cell besides Joe, after all.

The teen rolled over to face the person and cracked open his eyes. Sure enough, he could make out a blurry shape of someone, and as he blinked to clear his vision, it was indeed Joe.

Joe adjusted his glasses and began to speak, which Nix of course couldn’t understand; he was such a quick talker it was frustrating. It was a miracle if he could even make out a single word. Let alone a full sentence.

The man then gently grasped the teen's shoulder again. He wanted him to get out of bed. Of  _ course _ he had to interrupt his sleep.

But Nix complied anyway, swinging his legs over the bed and standing up, and allowing Joe to walk him out of his cell.

At first, he thought he knew where Joe was taking him; the meeting room he and the rest of the byte would be escorted to. He vaguely recognized the route they were taking. However, just as they were about to round a corner that led to the familiar chamber, Joe just passed it and continued walking.

Where were they even going?

He thought Joe must have read his look of confusion quite well, for the man responded quickly. Too quick for him to understand most of it. But there was one single word that he could make out from his phrases; funeral.

Funeral.

Nix blinked as soon as he saw Joe say the word. A funeral? At first, he was almost at a loss for who the funeral was for. Did somebody else in the byte die?! 

However, after a moment of his panicked thoughts racing through his head, he began to realize who the funeral must have been for. The only one who had been confirmed deceased thus far, and had been for quite some time.

Jazz. They were giving him a proper burial. A proper goodbye...

But why? The only one who was close to him was Lucky. They didn't know who he was, or what he was like.

Then again… as dark as thinking about it was, it had been a whole week since Jazz had been killed. And bodies… didn’t last that long after death, to say the least. Not to mention it was the middle of summer. The high temperatures and humidity would only speed up the process of decay. They probably wanted to get rid of him sooner rather than later.

He wished he hadn't paid so much attention during his medical training.

The pair rounded another corner, and Nix saw a familiar sight. The grand staircase leading up towards the surface, towards the outside world. 

His eyes widened, and he almost broke out into a run as Joe walked him up the stairs. With every step, the air got warmer and warmer, brighter and brighter-

And then they burst through the doors, into the compound. Into the summer sunlight.

It had been so long since the last time he felt the warm sun on his skin. Too long. The sensation almost made his knees weak, and he had to resist the temptation to sprawl out onto the grass and stay there.

But Joe continued to lead Nix along before he could.

The pair passed by the several buildings in the compound, as well as quite a few of the W.E.S. operatives. Jevin, Doc, False, several others Nix didn't recognize. They all threw disapproving and angry glances towards the teen. A few of them started to speak, but he couldn't hear them in the first place.

He didn't give a single damn about what they had to say, anyway.

Nix and Joe finally passed the gates of the compound and emerged into the massive field where the gruesome battle took place just a single week prior. It was pretty much the same as it was before. But this time, a massive crater blackened the grass and earth, massive pieces of shrapnel scattered about and sticking out of the ground. A shiver went down his spine at the sight; it was almost like there was the feeling of death lingering in the summer air.

But he did notice something different. In a less charred part of the field, he saw what appeared to be a group of people in the distance. And as he and Joe approached, he could start to make out a few familiar faces. Synth, Sakura, Angel.

And then there was the casket, sat on top of a stone platform. To his surprise, it actually looked quite nice. It definitely wasn’t thrown together in a hurry; time had obviously been put into creating it. Although simplistic and lacking intricate detail, the dark oak wood making up the coffin was polished to a shine, and the metal handles appeared quite sturdy.

However, Nix still wondered how they were able to throw something that nice that quickly together. But then again, as far as he knew, with the information Lucky had provided before the byte had actually been deployed, basically every single one of the members of HermitCraft was extremely talented, in some form or another. From engineers and scientists, to soldiers and artists, there were people from all walks of life.

Nix had never been to a funeral before. Not that it was on his bucket list of things to do, of course. It was due to him being such a new recruit; he had only been enlisted since the middle of spring, just a month or so prior. He never had the chance to properly mingle and get to know other soldiers, and, as a result, know them well enough to actually have a reason to go to their funeral, if they were to pass away or be killed in battle.

The only thing close to a funeral service Nix had been to was an execution. 

Although gruesome, horrifying, and almost scarring, he understood that executions were necessary. Traitors, as rare as they were in the Shadowbyte ranks, existed, and once they were found, they had to be promptly dealt with. And to add insult to injury, their fellow soldiers were called in to watch them have their hacks leeched, followed by death.

It was the ultimate form of shame and humiliation. Having their greatest gift taken away from them, and having their friends, family, and colleagues observe like it was entertainment.

And now he knew what that felt like.

He was pulled out of his thoughts as he and Joe had finally reached the small gathering of people. The teen looked over at Joe out of instinct, and felt somewhat annoyed as he said something that Nix couldn’t interpret. The man then gave a sympathetic smile and patted his shoulder a couple times, before turning around and walking off back towards the compound, his elytra softly fluttering in the breeze.

The teen glanced back over at his group, and he made his way over to stand in an open spot in the line. Leaning his head forward and glancing left and right, he began to do a mental headcount.

Angel was at the end of the row, standing tall and strong. She must have done this a hundred times before in her career. Her straight face and almost calm demeanor further supported that theory.

Synth stood on Nix's right. He also seemed quite collected, but not as much as his superior. While she had zero visible expressions or emotions, the redhead was obviously worried. What he was worried about, however, was unknown.

On Nix's left was Sakura. To his surprise and concern, she had a cast on her ankle that he couldn't help but mentally nitpick for how sloppy the work was. A pair of worn, rickety crutches helped her stay on her feet. Maybe she got injured during the escape.

But those were all of his colleagues that he could see. No Grey or Coda. Or Lucky, either. Where were they? Especially Lucky… he should have been showing up, right? It was his own brother’s funeral, after all…

… and then a single thought crossed Nix’s mind. It almost made him nervous to think about, and his heart began to pound:

Had they actually managed to escape? 

As much as he wanted to go home, Nix desperately hoped that they didn’t succeed. He knew what was waiting out there. Monsters that spawned in the darkest hours of the night, wild animals that were hungry for a fresh kill or two, not to mention just good old nature, with her storms and ruthless weather. And with how the World was so young, there were bound to be some glitches occuring. Glitches that could possibly kill them-

No. They were going to be fine. They could both hold their own out there. Grey had the brains, and Coda had the strength. Everything was going to turn out alright.

There were a few other people there at the funeral, aside from Nix’s colleagues. Not surprisingly, Xisuma was among them. Nix presumed that most of the others were there to help keep an eye on what was going on. He was further convinced of that fact when he saw that almost all of them had some sort of weapon. And he could easily recognize that the entire arsenal was from the Shadowbyte soldiers’ personal setup.

The teen could recognize most of the ones standing guard. Firstly, there was the cyborg he had helped heal just about a week prior, Biffa. He had Jazz’s shotgun gripped in his mechanical hands, eyes scanning the small crowd like a hawk. And the sight of it made Nix grind his teeth in anger; that man had no respect for the dead. No respect for Lucky’s brother. He could have taken another weapon and left the gun alone, but no.

Next, there was Wels, a man with blonde hair and wearing what almost appeared to be a medieval set of armor, Synth’s longsword holstered to a belt around his waist. Nix thought the man’s choice in armor was a bit odd, but Nix just accepted that people from HermitCraft were a bit out there already.

However, then there was the wild card. A man with sunglasses and long brown hair tied in a ponytail stood on Xisuma’s left. He carried no weapon, and, to Nix’s surprise, appeared very solemn. Almost sad. He obviously wasn’t standing guard, and he didn’t look very threatening. So what was he doing there?

But then Nix saw there was someone standing next to the brunette, almost out of his line of sight; Lucky. And saying that he looked terrible would have been an understatement. Dark bags hung under his puffy, bloodshot eyes, his blonde hair needed to be combed and washed, his blue-accented uniform was covered in dust and dirt. Trails of dried up tears stained his freckled cheeks.

He couldn’t even imagine how Lucky was feeling. Nix didn’t have any family to lose; he had never lost somebody close to him. The only person who he was remotely close with was Grey.

But now he might have been on the verge of losing someone.

Nix was pulled out of his thoughts when he caught a glimpse of someone moving up the casket. A familiar man, one that Nix could recognize without hesitation, at this point. The green body armor and grey helmet covering his face made it easy.

Xisumavoid. The son of a bitch that leeched the hacks of him and his colleagues.

The man's helmeted gaze lingered on the wooden coffin, before he turned to face the crowd. Nix easily presumed that Xisuma was now talking. It would have been a bit odd if he were just standing there gazing over the crowd.

After a long and somewhat awkward moment of Xisuma's silent speech, Nix then saw Lucky's figure stiffen out of the corner of his eye. But instead of shrinking back, he shuffled away from where he was to step up onto the platform next to Xisuma, facing the small crowd. 

If he was making a speech, then Nix would have to try his best to understand his words.

He saw the short blonde cough after a moment. “H...hello,” His lips read. Not too hard of a word. At least he was speaking quite slowly; it made his phrases easier to piece together. “Umm… I-I guess we all know why we’re here right now…” He glanced over his shoulder at the casket for a second, before returning his gaze back to the group.

"I...I want to say sorry…" Lucky swallowed. "T-to you guys. About everything…" His shoulders started to sag as his lips ceased to move. “I’ve been a failure as a soldier… a hacker… a-and a brother."

Nix could see the tears flowing down the blonde's face as he continued to speak. "U-uh…A-anyway…" He cleared his throat. "I-I'm not good at this sort of thing, but… but I should probably get to what I'm here for. Wh-what we're all here for. Ja-" He cut himself off. "R-riff."

“My brother was…” His lips stopped moving for a moment. He wiped the tears off his face with his sleeve. “Was the strongest guy I ever knew. He… put up with a lot. With his position in the Army, the missions he was sent out on…” A sad smile made its way onto his face, and he gave a sheepish laugh. “And especially me.”

Nix couldn’t help but let out a soft chuckle. He could see a few others around him laugh as well. Although he didn't know Jazz for long, it was blatantly obvious how much he had on his plate.

"But… He was always there for me." Lucky continued. "Even when he was only a kid himself… H-He protected me, stood up for me… He was the best brother anyone could ask for."

The blonde's figure began to visibly shake, and his lip trembled. "I-I…" He wiped more tears that had fallen down his face. “I’m so sorry, Jazz…”

And then, like a house of cards, Lucky collapsed to his knees, burying his face in his hands. His body shook with his supposed cries, and before long, he turned around to rest his arms and head on the casket. As if trying to say goodbye to his brother one last time.

It didn’t exactly help that Nix couldn’t hear his sobs. Or that fact that Lucky had revealed his brother’s actual name.

Not that he could blame him.

But he felt a small sense of relief and comfort as he saw the mystery man in the red shirt and sunglasses quickly make his way up to the stone platform to kneel at Lucky’s side. He slowly helped the shaking blonde up to his feet, and led Lucky away from the casket and off of the stone platform, letting him cry as much as he needed to. As surprised as he was at the sudden act of kindness, he was glad that at least one person appeared to actually gave a damn about the situation.

Not to mention Xisuma. Once Nix shifted his dark gaze to the hacker, he saw that he almost appeared sympathetic. Like he knew  _ exactly _ what Lucky was feeling. Not just the obvious sadness and sorrow of losing someone close; it was more than that. But Nix couldn’t put his finger on it.

And then out of nowhere, Lucky stopped in his tracks. His tear filled eyes were wide, fixated on something, and he began to speak. Nix raised an eyebrow, and followed his gaze to where the blonde had his locked on…

Biffa. Specifically, Jazz's shotgun gripped in his robotic hands.

Oh shit.

Before he could even blink, Lucky had charged towards the cyborg and attempted to tackle him. In reality, he more ended up knocking himself back as he ran into him, but he scurried to his feet and wrapped his hands around the gun.

Several of the W.E.S. members rushed to the pair, hastily trying to tear the blonde soldier away from Biffa. It didn't take that long for them to break Lucky's grip and drag him away towards the rest of the Shadowbyte soldiers, towards where Nix was.

So many people were moving and talking all at once, so much so that Nix couldn't even piece together a full sentence. The fray was too much for him to try and understand any of their words.

However, he could make out once sentence. One sentence from Lucky, and as far as he could tell, he was screaming it at the top of his lungs. And that sentence, as soon as he realized what had been said, sent a stabbing pain through his heart.

"You don't deserve to hold it."

Just as soon as he latched himself onto Biffa, Lucky was torn away from the object of his sorrowful anger by Wels, and dragged over towards Nix and the rest of the byte. The blonde visibly struggled for a moment, thrashing and kicking. But it wasn't long before his violent movements ceased, and he went limp as he continued to be dragged across the dirt.

Nix didn't know how much more he could witness before breaking completely.

Wels stood the blonde up next to the rest of the byte and, seemingly satisfied that he had given up trying to fight, let go and muttered something, before making his way back to his guarding position. All Nix could focus on was Synth's sword strapped to his belt, the sharp blade glinting in the summer sun. 

If only he could snatch it quick enough to take that son of a bitch down with one strike. 

He knew where to hit, how to make a quick and efficient kill. Knowledge of anatomy made that easy. But his lack of combat training held him back, in that regard. 

So Nix could only be tempted by revenge as Wels walked away.

He removed his angered gaze and put them back on Lucky. His teary eyes were wide, his body shook and shivered. He appeared to be on the verge of collapsing to the ground.

Thankfully, someone immediately went to his aid; Sakura. She hobbled over to him on her crutches, saying something that Nix couldn't understand. As soon as she got close enough, the brunette woman brought Lucky into a hug, which he promptly accepted, his figure shaking as he began to let out another series of sobs.

At least he had her to lean on as he went through the grief. She seemed like she was willing to help anyone at any time.

Nix's dark brown eyes shifted away from his colleagues and back to the W.E.S. operatives who had brought them to the funeral in the first place. Specifically, his eyes landed on Xisuma, still standing next to Jazz’s casket. 

The man still had his helmeted gaze on Lucky, but now a glare was cast over his purple visor from the sun. No expression could be seen, which made him appear more intimidating than he normally was. Just the fact that Nix could no longer see his face set him on edge.

After a moment of Nix keeping his nervous gaze on the hacker, however, Xisuma turned back towards the casket, and held out his hand. A faint flicker of pixels could then be seen radiating from Xisuma's palm as he threw his hand to the sky...

And right before his eyes, the casket was then consumed in a great ball of fire, sending sparks and thick smoke into the clear blue sky. A blast of immense heat washed over him, but he stood his ground.

Nix saw a few people jump back in surprise, all of whom were Xisuma's colleagues. He could presume they weren't expecting him to do  _ that _ .

Although he had never been to a Shadowbyte funeral in the past, he knew the basic gist of how one would be carried out. Like a traditional funeral from just about anywhere, close family, friends, and colleagues would attend. They would pay their respects, give condolences to the ones closest to the deceased, and many people would make a small speech or two about the one who passed, before their casket would be burned. If the soldier was in a high enough rank and well respected, sometimes Ecrytpos himself would show up to say a word or two.

Nix knew that most of those events wouldn't occur, given the situation. The only family present was Lucky, and a majority of the people attending didn't know Jazz for more than a full day. And from what he could tell, Jazz deserved some of the highest honors a Shadowbyte soldier should receive.

It was a shame that it was never going to happen now. To  _ any  _ of them. Not to Angel, not to Synth, not to-

And then the smell of the smoke finally hit. Not just the wood from the casket… It was the scent of charred flesh. Burning hair. Metallic blood.

Jazz.

Nix felt his mouth and eyes water as his stomach twisted and churned. He wanted to vomit so badly at the horrid smell. But he knew he had to hold back the strong urge. Now wasn't the time. He needed to give Jazz the respect he deserved. The respect that nobody but the remaining members of the byte would give him.

So he lifted his hand up in a salute, not caring about the tears from his watering eyes flowing down his face, and mentally repeated the phrase a Shadowbyte soldier knew so well...

_ Glorious in life, eternal in death. _

~~~~~

As disrespectful as it sounded, Nix was more than happy that Joe was bringing him back down into the bunker. He didn't know how much longer he could bear the smell of Jazz's burning remains. The temptation to walk faster was unbearable.

Nix had no clue if Joe was speaking to him. He just kept his eyes forward, trying to focus on settling his stomach. He could still faintly smell the awful smoke from the funeral pyre.

Now he  _ really _ wanted a shower and a change of clothes.

The moment he and Joe had arrived at his cell, Nix didn’t hesitate to lumber in. He collapsed onto his bed and sighed, dark brown eyes shifting up towards the ceiling.

He never thought a single event would wear him out so much. But then again, he presumed funerals were supposed to be mentally and emotionally exhausting. At least he was back in his room-

He then saw Joe begin to flail his arms out of the corner of his eye. He must have been trying to get his attention.

Of  _ course _ he couldn't be left alone.

The teen sat up in his bed and shifted his gaze onto the man in the elytra. His lips began to move, only this time, Nix could actually make out the sentence he had said.

“Why don’t you ever talk?”

Nix remained still for a moment, before letting out a sigh. He pointed to his ear, before shaking his head.

Joe blinked, frowned, and adjusted his glasses. “So… you can’t hear anything, huh?” 

Nix pressed his lips into a firm line, and held up his hands. It took someone  _ that _ long to wonder about it and ask? A whole entire  _ week _ ?

The older man quickly said something that Nix couldn't make out and raised his hands a bit in a defensive manner.

After a short moment, the man began to speak again, much more slowly than his usual pace. Maybe he was trying to make it easier for Nix to understand him. “But why did you lie about your names? We already know who y'all work for.”

Nix furrowed his brows and crossed his arms, glaring at Joe. He had  _ some _ dignity left. He could give up everything else, but his name wasn’t one of those things.

But as soon as Joe finished his last sentence, the teen felt his stomach drop. What did he mean that he 'knew who they all worked for'? Somebody from the byte must have been forced to say something, but who?

Joe opened his mouth to speak again, but as quickly his lips started to move, they stopped. As he shifted his eyes over to the door, Nix followed them with his own-

And there he stood in the doorframe, tall and strong in his emerald green armor. Xisumavoid.

Nix felt chills run down his spine the moment he caught sight of the hacker, and he had the urge to try and scoot away as he walked into the room. He knew what Xisuma could do. What he was capable of. And he did _ not _ want to be the one on the other end of his weaponry and power.

Joe was looking at Xisuma intently, as if he were listening to him speak. But not like Nix could tell. Due to the helmet covering his mouth, the medic couldn't figure out what Xisuma was saying. Only bits and pieces of Joe's sentences.

"But I can’t… Zero’s deaf. He can't hear." Joe’s lips read. Nix figured that the hacker had asked if the man had gotten any information out of him that could be useful.

And he could tell that Xisuma wasn’t expecting that sort of answer from Joe. His eyebrows raised, as if surprised, and he could see slight wrinkles form and fade on the upper half of his face. He must have been speaking then.

“Yeah, I’m sure,” Joe responded. He glanced over at Nix for a moment, before shifting his focus back to his colleague. “Uhh… y’know how to sign? Can any of the others?” He asked.

Xisuma raised an eyebrow, but shook his head.

Nix blinked, and then pressed his lips into a firm line.  _ Nobody _ knew how to sign? Sure, he didn’t expect anyone to be perfect at it, but he expected at least  _ one _ person would have a basic idea of what he was trying to say.

He watched the two men continue to converse. Even if he could only read Xisuma’s gestures and facial expressions. Seeing the guy crossing his arms, tapping his chin, and furrowing his brows didn’t exactly reveal a lot. Just that he was most likely thinking about something.

And then out of nowhere, Xisuma's eyes shifted onto Nix. The teen froze where he sat, a deer in the headlights, and his heart began to pound as Xisuma took a step towards him. Why did Xisuma do that? What did he want-

"Zero? Zero, can you hear me?"

The sudden voice in his head nearly made him jump up from where he sat. His ears almost started to ring. At first, he thought he might have been going crazy…

And then he realized what it was. It wasn't his conscience, or a new imaginary friend that his mind formed to try and keep himself sane. It was Xisuma using telepathic hacks in order to communicate better.

“Can you hear me?” The hacker repeated his sentence, taking another step towards the teenager. "Is this working?"

Nix kept his dark eyes locked on Xisuma. As hesitant as he was, he gave him a nod.

He saw Xisuma let out a visible sigh of relief. "Alright, good," He answered. “Now, just one moment.”

The teen was taken by surprise when the hacker then disappeared in a burst of green and blue pixels for a moment. However, he wasn't gone for long. Before Nix knew it, another flash of colored static filled the room, and when it faded, Xisuma was now standing there, a black pen, a small notebook, and a stack of familiar photographs in his hands.

Nix immediately knew what the hacker wanted him to do.

Xisuma put the pen and notebook in the tennager's hands. "Now, what's your name?" He asked. "Your  _ real _ name."

Nix remained quiet, but looked at the notepad and pen in his hands. Should he  _ really _ do this? What were the consequences going to be?

...then again, the chances of actually going back home to the Hive were slim to none. The odds of the Army actually finding them were even less. He was essentially down to nothing. Nothing to lose, nothing that could be taken away from him.

So he pressed the pen to the page, and scribbled out his message.

_ Nix. My name is Nix. _

The teen tore the small slip of paper out of the notebook and handed it to Joe.

After a second of his eyes darting across the paper, Nix could see the man let out a small chuckle. "So it's Nix, huh?" Joe's lips read. "Fitting."

Nix looked up at Joe and frowned a bit, giving him an annoyed expression. Like he hadn't heard  _ that _ before. He knew his name literally meant ‘none’, and that it did seem like it was perfect for him, given he could both hear nothing, and chose to say nothing.

"Are you a medic, by chance?" Xisuma then asked. The teen blinked in confusion, wondering how he could know his role as a Shadowbyte soldier, but then the hacker pointed to his shoulder. "The patches on your shoulders."

Nix shifted and glanced down at one of his shoulders, and he saw what Xisuma was talking about. A worn cloth patch of a red plus sign. The insignia of the Army's Medical Division, and a common mark of a medic anywhere.  _ Now _ Xisuma made sense. Understanding, Nix nodded.

“Ah, I see,” Xisuma replied, and cleared his throat. “Alright… how about this person?” The hacker then held up a picture of a tired Lucky, eyes bloodshot and blonde hair disheveled. 

Nix hesitated for a moment, remembering the fiasco that had happened earlier that day. But he soon began to write his answer down on his notepad anyway. As guilty as he felt selling his teammates out of the one secret they had left, somebody had presumably leaked much more sensitive information than just names.

_ That one is Lucky. He has- _

He paused, and then scribbled over the ‘has’.

_ -had an older brother, Jazz. He was the one from the funeral today. _

As Nix handed the paper off and Xisuma read it, he saw wrinkles form on his face. He must have been frowning. He could easily presume why.

But after a moment, the man blinked and shook his head a bit, before holding up another photograph. It was Sakura, curled up on her bed and shying away from the flash of the camera. 

_ She's Sakura. She's a mechanic, from what I've been able to tell. Really sweet, once you get to know her. _

He ripped off the slip of paper and handed it over. Xisuma had read it, and seemingly let out a small chuckle.

"I will admit, she's one the most tame out of you all." The hacker's voice echoed as he put away Sakura's picture and pulled out another. "Now, who's this man?"

Nix shifted his dark brown eyes onto the photograph, and felt his heart sink a bit. An older man with faded blue eyes and silver hair stared back at him, eyebrows furrowed. And despite his disheveled look, Nix could recognize him immediately.

Grey.

Nix hesitated for a moment as he recognized the man in the photograph. He had to snap himself out of his trance before he began to scribble down his message.

_ Greydroid. My mentor. _

“A fellow medic, I presume?” Xisuma’s echoing voice asked after Nix had handed him the slip of paper.

Nix gave the hacker a small nod. His mind was starting to drift back off to other thoughts and questions he had that he knew couldn’t be answered. Specifically where his teacher was, and if he was okay.

Xisuma pulled him out of his thoughts as he pulled out another photo. A familiar shot of an angry Coda flipping off the camera. "What about her?" He asked. "What's her name?"

Nix's gaze lingered on the picture for a moment. He still couldn't help but wonder where she and Grey were. But he forced himself to shake away the thought, and he started writing again.

_ Her name is Coda. Don’t know much about her other than that Grey was also her mentor at some point. She also has a short temper, if you haven’t already noticed. _

As the medic ripped off the slip of paper and handed it to the two men, he saw Joe starting to speak again as his eyes shifted onto him. "Wait, wasn't she the one that broke Iskall's nose?" His lips read.

Nix blinked, but he shrugged. It didn't surprise him that Coda had managed to do that. He knew that even with as immature as she seemed, she was highly skilled in close quarters combat. During the initial fight the week before, she was taking down people left and right. He was shocked that she hadn't killed anyone, with how brutal she was.

Maybe she was restraining herself from doing so. Following Angel’s orders.

Nix shifted his attention back to Xisuma as he held up another photograph, a tall and handsome man with fiery red hair and striking grey eyes. Synth.

He clicked his pen and began to write.

_ That's Synth. He and Coda are really close friends, but I don't know if they're more than that. _

Tearing off the paper and handing it over, Nix started to wonder how Synth and Coda even became friends. Synth was prim, proper, patient. Definitely a gentleman. Coda, on the other hand, was impulsive, loud, and  _ very _ reckless. The two couldn't be any more different.

But he didn't have time to wonder about the relationship between the two Infantry soldiers. If his math was right he had one more person to identify.

And he was correct. Because Xisuma pulled out a picture of a woman he could name on sight. Ebony skin, black curly hair, an eyepatch over one of her dark eyes. He immediately began to write his answer.

_ She's our leader. Her name is A- _

And then the ink stopped mid sentence, leaving only indents on the paper.

Of  _ course _ that had to happen. Of all times, it  _ had _ to happen when he was almost done.

Nix scribbled off to the side to try and get the ink to flow again. Nothing happened. He huffed and made another mark. Still nothing.

Now that was just  _ great _ . The pen just had to go dry at that moment, didn’t it?  _ Now _ what was he going to do?

...And then he had an idea. It seemed quite foolish, but he didn't care.

Nix suddenly sprang up and grasped one of the wings of the silver elytra strapped to Joe's back, tugging a couple of times.

The man was taken slightly aback by the sudden action. He jumped back a bit as the teen let go of the wing he had snatched. His lips started to move and say a sentence, that the teen unfortunately couldn't make out.

Nix then reached a hand over his own shoulder and patted his back a few times. Hopefully he could get his message across without the use of words.

Xisuma tilted his head slightly, visibly confused. "Nix, what are you trying to say?" His voice echoed.

The teen became slightly discouraged. Maybe a little game old charades wasn't going to work after all… but he knew he had to try more than once. So he tugged on Joe's set of wings and tapped his back once again.

Joe's next words were easier to understand. “Wings? Back?" He started. "Wings on her back-” His lips suddenly stopped moving, and Nix could assume he went quiet. But a small smile soon formed on his face. “Angel? Is her name Angel?”

Nix couldn’t help but smile back, and gave a single nod. They understood him!

“Thank you, Nix.”

Xisuma’s voice sounded in his head again. He glanced over at the hacker, who was now conversing with Joe, and handed over all of the photographs and slips of paper to him. Of course, he couldn't decipher what they were actually saying, but at this point, he didn't exactly care.

Joe then began to walk towards the door, stack of photos and notebook paper in hand. He said something to Xisuma and waved, presumably a goodbye, before ultimately exiting the room and closing the door behind him.

But then instead of following his colleague out, Xisuma remained where he stood. There was a moment where he did not move, did not appear to have said anything. What was he doing?

"I have one more question for you," His voice then echoed in Nix's head, catching him off guard. He turned around to face him, and took a step forward.

The teen tilted his head a bit, and unconsciously leaned closer. He almost wanted to know what his captor had to say. It gave him something to do, allowed him to fight back the boredom and ease the anxiety.

"Who leads the Army?"

Nix raised an eyebrow at Xisuma's statement. He wasn't expecting  _ that _ sort of question. Sure, he knew that the members of HermitCraft had somehow figured out who he and the rest of the byte worked for, but why would he want to know? Perhaps he wanted to determine who the biggest enemy of the Shadowbyte Army was. The head of the whole beast.

At least Nix had an easy answer to the question. It had always been the same exact person, ever since the Shadowbyte Army was founded; Ecryptos. It may have been years and years since he had created it, but the general was still alive and kicking. He had grown so powerful that he had essentially become ageless. Immortal, even.

It made sense why nobody ever tried to overthrow him. And even if he wasn’t as powerful as he was, it wasn’t likely that anybody would want to take his title for the sake of others. Ecryptos wasn't anything close to a tyrant. If anything, he was a savior. A guardian. He treated any other person he took under his wing like they were his own family.

Including Nix.

He was still quite young when he was first taken in, about nine or ten years old. As fate would have it, it was at that time he had lost his hearing, and it didn’t take long for someone to notice and figure it out. And that person was none other than Ecryptos himself.

Every now and then, Ecryptos would visit the floors where the children who hadn’t begun their training would stay. Usually it was to check up on how the newer ones were doing; more often than not, they would come from a bad situation. He always wanted to make sure that each one had the opportunity to have the best childhood possible, no matter where they came from or what they were dealing with.

Nix had caught the general's attention with how distant he was being. He never interacted with the other children, or any of the adults. Due to the obvious communication barrier that was suddenly thrown upon him by the loss of his hearing, Nix had decided to shut himself off out of frustration and sadness. He would just sit in a cramped corner for  _ hours _ on end.

And he didn't expect Ecryptos, this seemingly terrifying man who he had never met before in his life, try to get through to him and provide accommodations for his condition.

When Nix first saw him, he couldn't help but feel scared; Ecryptos didn't exactly appear friendly, to say the least. He was freakishly tall, had a sickly, almost rotten tone to his skin. Not to mention the countless scars scattered across his body. And what made him even more scary was the fact that Nix couldn’t see his face behind the helmet he wore; it was the unknown that frightened him.

Yet the first thing Ecryptos did when he met the boy was anything but cruel. He approached, sat down a few feet away from him, and, to Nix’s surprise, rolled a small rubber ball over. As if Nix were a shy dog that didn’t want to play.

At the time, Nix thought it was extremely silly and strange. Yet the man had continued to patiently wait for Nix to feel comfortable, to feel like he could talk to him. And after hours of the two rolling the small toy back and forth, Nix finally did try to speak (which he couldn’t hear). It was at that moment Ecryptos realized why Nix had shut himself off. He didn’t know  _ how _ to communicate anymore.

And so, from that day forward, Ecryptos taught Nix as much as he could, in terms of communication. He was the one that had made sure Nix would be able to socialize in any circumstances, whether via hacks or by signing or lip reading. 

So, in summary, Nix was very grateful to the legendary general. If he were to reveal his identity, the repercussions would be terrifying!

...but then again, Ecryptos couldn't exactly  _ die _ . He had been alive for years, and could go for centuries more. There was no way, even with how powerful Xisuma was, that if he were to try and take him down, Ecryptos could not be killed or overthrown.

So he pressed his pen to the paper and scribbled down his answer.

_ His name is Ecryptos. _

He stopped for a moment, pursed his lips, and added another two sentences. 

_ And I wouldn't try going after him, if I were you. You WILL die. _

He had to try and hold back the grin that wanted to form on his lips as he tore the paper out of his notepad and handed it to Xisuma. Maybe he could have a little fun with this.

But once the hacker's eyes landed on the paper, Nix noticed his behavior change right away. His grip on the message tightened, his brows furrowed, his posture stiffened. Most of all, something sparked in his eyes.

Burning hatred.

And before Nix knew it, Xisuma had sprung to his feet, spun around and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

_ That _ was certainly unexpected.

He had no idea that the hacker would have a reaction as volatile and sudden as that. But it did reveal something, something that gave Nix more questions than actual answers.

Xisuma was obviously angry and resentful at something, so much so that it took every fiber of his being to not let it all out.

Because the steel handle of his door had molded to the shape of his grip like a ball of clay.

~~~~~

After another bland couple of meals and another sleepless night, Nix didn't think twice about Joe waking him up and leading him out of his cell. He was too tired to care about anything the members of HermitCraft had to say, and too worried about Grey to focus on anything else.

Not to mention his last interaction with Xisuma. Why would he have a reaction that intense? He didn’t know Ecryptos; nobody outside the Army did. Once someone was taken in by the Army, they served for life. And even if they wanted to leave, where would they go? The reason they joined in the first place was because they had nobody else to turn to. Not family, friends. All of their bridges had been burned, intentionally or not.

He knew it was raining outside. Or at the very least, it had been. He could see the countless trails of muddy shoe prints and small puddles of water along the tile he passed by. He also felt the rubber soles of his boots squeaking against the floor as he walked.

At least he couldn't hear that. Leave that for everyone else to deal with. It was one of the only sounds he was glad he was missing.

But Nix started to notice something. The route he and Joe were taking through the maze of hallways was familiar. Even if he had only been in that World for about a week, he had been on a strict daily routine before the attempted breakout. And he realized the path that he was taking.

He and Joe were headed towards the byte’s meeting room.

But why? Had something happened to prompt a meeting? Maybe Grey and Coda had returned-

No. There was no possibility of that. Coda was the most stubborn person Nix had ever met, and there was no way she would want to come back after a successful escape. And she probably wouldn't let Grey out of her sight.

...but he couldn't help but start to hope.

Joe and Nix rounded a final corner, and the single door to the meeting room came into view. The teen's heart began to pound harder and harder with every step closer. He could see figures moving inside through the small barred window on the iron door-

The moment Joe opened the door, Nix broke away from his grip and dashed inside. Darting his eyes around, he saw every member of the that was at the funeral the day before; Angel, Lucky, Sakura, Synth. Even Xisuma.

But still no Grey or Coda.

The teen's heart sank as his hope crumbled. He couldn't help but let his shoulders sag a bit. Even if it was just a slim chance, the idea of knowing his mentor was okay was one he was desperate to make come true.

He lifted his eyes from the floor and glanced around at the people around him, before his eyes landed on the one person he didn't expect to be there. Xisuma.

Xisuma stood at the front of the room, all by himself. For a second, Nix was wondering why he had no armed colleagues at his side. But then he remembered that the man could probably wipe them out of existence with a single flick of his hand.

He could more than easily take care of himself.

"Hello everyone," Xisuma's voice echoed inside of Nix’s head, and he saw his fellow soldiers shift their gazes towards him. He must have been using his hacks and speaking simultaneously. "As many of you know, during your attempted breakout, a couple of you had actually managed to escape. You all may be part of a...faction of hackers, but we know that you all are very loyal to both your cause and your colleagues."

"We are forming a search party for the two who have escaped," Xisuma continued, making Nix's eyes widen with interest. The man then held up his palm, and two images of two people he knew all too well appeared on a holographic display, similar to Lucky's. "Coda and Grey."

Nix saw a few of the byte members beside him have a visible reaction to the real names of their missing colleagues being said. A slight feeling of dread formed in the pit of his stomach; it would only be a matter of time before they found out what he had done.

At least Coda wasn't there to beat the shit out of him.

Xisuma made a fist, and the holographic display disappeared in a flash of pixels. “We  _ are _ willing to bring some of you along," The hacker continued, catching Nix's attention. "However, you will be under strict supervision. If you try anything, there will be consequences." The hacker glanced around the crowd one last time. "Anyone who is willing to go, just step up."

At first, everybody was still. Not a single person twitched or moved; all stood their ground. But to Nix’s surprise, he then saw someone step forward from the group of five and approach the hacker.

Synth.

The teen saw confusion arise from the others around him. Angel reached out and rested a hand on his shoulder. Her lips moved wildly, too quick for Nix to make anything out.

However, after a short moment, Synth's lips moved for a second, before he gently removed the woman's hand and walked off towards Xisuma. The two men began to converse, but Nix didn't know what the redhead was saying; his back was facing him.

However, Synth’s body language revealed quite a lot. His shoulders were tense, he was standing up straight, his arms were crossed. He was definitely  _ very _ serious about what he was doing. This wasn't something he was doing on a whim.

And the teen could only come up with one reason why he would be that way.

As far as he knew, Synth barely knew Grey. The way they interacted with one another was very professional, not exactly personal.

But with Coda, on the other hand, the two were practically attached at the  _ hip _ . The way they interacted gave the obvious hint that they were very close. And the way Synth was acting now implied that he cared about Coda deeply.

And Nix didn't need to know what he was saying to understand that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! Sorry about such a long wait for this chapter; it was a bit of a toughie to write! Since Nix is deaf, I wanted to make sure I represented that as accurately as I could. I know it's not perfect, but I'm personally proud of it.
> 
> Anyway, thank you all for your continued support, comments, kudos, and everything else in between! I appreciate it so much! :D


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